-*/l,-. 





THE ELEMENTS 



OF 



GENERAL METHOD 



'j^^yf^ 



THE ELEMENTS 



OF 



GENERAL METHOD 



BASED ON THE PRINCIPLES OF HERBART 



BY 
/ 

CHARLES A. McMURRY, Ph.D. 



NEW EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED 

I .1^ I • • • ';,:• •;• r- :.■ '- 



, ' ' > , ' 5 , ' 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1903 

All rights reserved 



IRfOlS 



THt L.bRARY OF 


CONGRESS, 


Two Copies Received 


m 22 1903 


^ Copyright Entry 
d-ASS Ou XXc. No 


4^ / i ^^ 


COPY B. 



Copyright, 1903, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped, 1903. 



* cc CO c t r f f f, 



Norhjooli iPrega 

J. S. CuBhiDg & Co. — Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



PREFACE 

In this revised edition of the General Method all 
the chapters have been considerably modified and 
enlarged. Especially has the treatment of Interest 
and Correlation been much extended. 

The ** Method of the Recitation " and the " School 
Management," two volumes which follow this from 
the same publishers, will complete the group of books 
treating of the general principles of method. 

Closely following these, the books of Special 
Method in Reading, Geography, Natural Science, 
and other studies by the same author apply these 
principles more definitely to the selection of mate- 
rials and method of treatment in the various studies. 

The Course of Study for the eight grades of the 
common school is worked out on the basis of the 
foregoing books of General and Special Method and 
will complete the whole series. 

CHARLES A. McMURRY. 
De Kalb, Illinois, 
August 14, 1902. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 



1. 

II. 


jthe l.hief /\1m of £.ducation . 
Relative Value of Studies 


I 

20 


III. 


Interest 


. . 84 


IV. 


Correlation 


. 162 


V. 


Induction 


. 214 


VI. 


Apperception 


• 255 


VII. 


The Will 


. 297 


nil. 


Herbart and his Disciples 


. 323 



THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

CHAPTER I 

THE CHIEF AIM OF EDUCATION 

What is the central purpose of education ? If we 
include under the term " education " all the things 
commonly assigned to it, its many phases as repre- 
sented by the great variety of teachers and pupils, 
the many branches of knowledge, and the various and 
even conflicting theories and methods in bringing up 
children, it is difficult to find a definition sufficiently 
broad and definite to compass its meaning. In fact, we 
shall not attempt in the beginning to make a defini- 
tion. We are in search not so much of a compre- 
hensive definition as of a central truth, a key to the 
situation, an aim that will simplify and brighten all 
the work of teachers. Keeping in view the end from 
the beginning, we need a central organizing principle 
which shall dictate for teacher and pupil the highway 
over which they shall travel together. 

We will assume, at least, that education means the 
whole bringing up of a child from infancy to maturity, 
not simply his school training. The reason for this 
assumption is that home, school, companions, envi- 

B I 



2 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

ronment, and natural endowment, working through a 
series of years, produce a character which should be 
a unit as the resultant of these different influences 
and growths. Again, we are compelled to assume 
that this aim, whatever it is, is the same for all. 

Now, what will the average man, picked up at 
random, say to our question, What is the chief end 
in the education of your son ? A farmer wishes his 
boy to read, write, and cipher, so as to meet success- 
fully the needs of a farmer's life. The merchant 
desires that his boy get a wider reach of knowledge 
and experience, so as to succeed in a livelier sort of 
business competition. A university professor would 
lay out a liberal course of training for his son, so as 
to prepare him for intellectual pursuits among schol- 
ars and people of culture. This utilitarian view, which 
points to success in life in the ordinary sense, is the 
prevailing one. We could probably sum up the wishes 
of a great majority of the common people by saying, 
"They desire to give their children, through educa- 
tion, a better chance in life than they themselves 
have had." Yet even these people, if pressed to give 
reasons, would admit that the purely utilitarian view 
is a low one, and that there is something better for 
every boy and girl than the mere ability to make a 
successful living. 

Turn for a moment to the great systems of educa- 
tion which have held their own for centuries, and 
examine their aims. The Jesuits and the Humanists 



THE CHIEF AIM OF EDUCATION 3 

claim to be liberal, culture-giving, and preparatory to 
great things ; yet we need but to quote from the his- 
tories of education to show their narrowness and 
incompleteness. The training of the Jesuits was lin- 
guistic and rhetorical, and almost entirely apart from 
our present notion of human development. The 
Humanists, or Classicists, who for so many centuries 
have constituted the educational 61ite, belonged to 
the past with its glories rather than to the time in 
which .they really lived. Though standing in a mod- 
ern age, they were almost blind to the great problems 
and opportunities it offered. They stood in bold 
contrast to the growth of the modern spirit in history, 
literature, and natural science. But, in spite of their 
predominating influence over education for centuries, 
there has never been the shadow of a chance for 
making the classics of antiquity the basis of common 
popular education. The modern school of Natural 
Scientists may be as one-sided as the Humanists in 
supposing that human nature is narrow enough to be 
compressed within the bounds of natural science 
studies, however broad their field may be. 

But the systems of education in vogue have always 
lagged behind the pronounced views of educational 
reformers. Two hundred fifty years ago Comenius 
projected a plan of education for every boy and girl 
of the common people. His aim was to teach all 
men all things, from the highest truths of religion to 
the commonest things of daily experience. Being a 



4 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

man of simple and profound religious faith, religion 
and morality were at the foundation of his system. 
But even the principles of intellectual training so 
clearly advocated by Comenius have not yet found a 
ready hearing among teachers, to say nothing of his 
great moral rehgious purpose. Among later writers, 
Locke, Rousseau, and Pestalozzi have set up ideals 
of education that have had much influence. But 
Locke's "gentleman" can never be the ideal of all, 
because it is intrinsically aristocratic, and education 
has become with us broadly democratic. After all, 
Locke's "gentleman," with his moral basis for char- 
acter, is a noble ideal and should powerfully impress 
teachers. The perfect human animal that Rousseau 
dreamed of in the Emile, is best illustrated in the 
noble savage, but we are not in danger in America 
of adopting this ideal. In spite of his merits the 
noblest savage falls short in several ways. Yet it is 
important in education to perfect the physical powers 
and the animal development in every child. Pesta- 
lozzi touched the hearts of even the weakest and 
morally frailest children, and tried to make improved 
physical conditions and intellectual culture contribute 
to heart culture, or rather to combine the two in 
strong moral character. He came close upon the 
highest aim in education and was able to illustrate 
his doctrine in practice. The educational reformers 
have gone far ahead of the schoolmasters in setting 
up a high aim in education. 



THE CHIEF AIM OF EDUCATION 5 

Let us examine a few well-known definitions of 
education by great thinkers, and try to discover a 
central idea. 

Plato : " The purpose of education is to give to the 
body and to the soul all the beauty and all the per- 
fection of which they are capable." 

John Stuart Mill : *' Education includes whatever 
we do for ourselves and whatever is done for us by 
others for the express purpose of bringing us nearer 
to the perfection of our nature." 

Herbert Spencer : *' Education is the preparation 
for complete living." 

Stein : " Education is the harmonious and equable 
evolution of the human faculties by a method based 
upon the nature of the mind for developing all the 
faculties of the soul, for stirring up and nourishing 
all the principles of life, while shunning all one-sided 
culture and taking account of the sentiments upon 
which the strength and worth of men depend." 

Compayre : " Education is the sum of the reflec- 
tive efforts by which we aid nature in the develop- 
ment of the physical, intellectual, and moral faculties 
of man in view of his perfection, his happiness, and 
his social destination." 

These attempts to bring the task of education into 
a comprehensive, scientific formula are interesting 
and yet disappointing. They agree in giving great 
breadth to education. But in the attempt to be com- 
prehensive, to omit nothing, they fail to specify that 



6 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

wherein the true worth of a man consists ; they fail 
to bring out into reHef the highest aim as an organiz- 
ing idea in the complicated work of education and 
its relation to secondary aims. 

We desire therefore to approach nearer to this 
problem : What is the highest aim of education ? 

We will do so by inquiry into the aims and ten- 
dencies of our public schools. To an outward ob- 
server the schools of to-day confine their attention 
almost exclusively to the acquisition of certain forms 
of knowledge and to intellectual training, to the 
mental discipline and power that come from a 
varied and vigorous exercise of the faculties. The 
great majority of good schoolmasters stand squarely 
upon this platform, knowledge and mental discipUne. 
But they are none the less deeply conscious that this 
is not the highest aim of education. We scarcely 
need to be told that a person may be fully equipped 
with the best that this style of education can give, 
and still remain a criminal. A good and wise parent 
will inevitably seek for a better result in his child than 
mere knowledge, intellectual abiHty, and power. All 
good schoolmasters know that behind school studies 
and cares is the still greater task of developing manly 
and womanly character. Perhaps, however, this is 
too high and sacred a thing to formulate. Perhaps 
in the attempt to reduce it to a scientific form we 
should lose its spirit. Admitting that strong moral 
character is the noblest result of right training, is it 



THE CHIEF AIM OF EDUCATION 7 

not still incidental to the regular school work ? Per- 
haps it lies in the teacher and his manner of teaching 
subjects, and not in the subject-matter itself nor in 
any course of study. 

This is exactly the point at which we wish to apply 
the lever and to lift into prominence the moral, char- 
acter-building aim as the central one in education. 
This aim should be Hke a loadstone, attracting and 
subordinating all other purposes to itself. It should 
dominate in the choice, arrangement, and method of 
studies. 

It is difficult at the present time to set up the moral 
aim as a supreme one in education, and to grasp clearly 
the instrumentalities by which it can be realized. 

When the churches first founded the common 
schools in this country and in Europe, the Bible was 
made the basis of religious and moral training, and 
definite means were thus supplied for reaching the 
result. This is still true of many European schools. 
But now that our schools have been completely secu- 
larized, and the Bible banished as a text-book, we 
have in our school course no material of pronounced 
ethical content whose avowed purpose is moral cul- 
ture. So far as direct moral training through instruc- 
tion is concerned, we have no plan for it. Knowl- 
edge and discipline are the well-defined purposes of 
our schools. The personal influence and moral force 
of the teacher must bear whatever burden of moral 
culture the school is held responsible for. 



8 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

There is also an instinctive feeling that direct moral 
teaching is apt to be formal and theoretic, unreal if 
not hypocritical, that morality belongs rather to 
conduct and to the discipline of the school than to 
instruction. Again, in those studies like history, 
reading, and literature, which possess marked moral 
quality, the instruction has been directed chiefly to 
other purposes, and therefore the moral influence of 
these studies has not been much utilized. Moreover, 
the relation of the moral aim to the other leading 
aims of education, such as intellectual discipline, 
physical training, acquired knowledge, music, art, and 
aesthetics, and especially to the conduct and active 
employments of children, has not been completely 
worked out. Some have the feeUng that morality 
is not a broad enough concept to cover the whole 
scheme of education. To bring all the aims into 
subordination to this one aim would limit its freedom 
and scope. We may state briefly, therefore, some of 
the reasons why the moral aim should be put forward 
as the controlling one in education. 

First : The attainment of virtue, that is, the estab- 
lishment of moral habits, gives us the best quality 
and achievement in individual character. It is ac- 
knowledged that the perfection of the individual is a 
chief essential to the aim of education. No matter 
how much we emphasize scientific knowledge and 
mental discipline, all admit that the attainment of 
^ moral excellence is still superior to these. As Kant 



THE CHIEF AIM OF EDUCATION 9 

says, '' There is but one good thing in the world, 
and that is a good will." The perfection of will, 
however, is found only in its subjection to moral re- 
quirements in the individual. It will be generally 
admitted that all physical, intellectual, and aesthetic 
culture should culminate in this individual moral 
excellence. 

Second : The second chief essential in the edu- 
cation of children is that they shall be trained for 
society. and for citizenship. They shall be adapted 
to the social and industrial life of the present. This 
demand is heard with much emphasis and from the 
highest quarters. It seems at the present time that 
the demand for the perfection of the individual is 
yielding, to a considerable extent, to the requirement 
for socializing or subordinating the individual to the 
needs of society. It is in the social order, however, 
that the moral virtues come chiefly into play. The 
highest statement of the social law is found in the 
golden rule, and it is the application of this every- 
where that is most needed in social intercourse and 
in human industry. To equip a child properly for 
social and industrial life is to put him in possession, 
through education, of these moral or social virtues 
and sympathies. This can only be done by giving 
him an insight into human relations and sympathy 
for people in all the various conditions of society. 
This whole point of view, therefore, is moral in the 
highest degree. 



10 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

Whether we look at education from the standpoint 
of the individual or of society as a whole, moral cul- 
ture is the preeminent need in both. 

Third : Moral ideas and moral education generally 
are subject to the same laws of growth and develop- 
ment as other kinds of knowledge and culture. Moral 
judgments, feelings, and decisions, vague and rudi- 
mentary at first in children, gradually develop through 
experience and culture to clearness and strength. 
It requires a clear advance in intelligence to perceive 
moral ideas, and likewise to move forward from 
particular examples to general moral concepts. In 
this respect moral enlightenment does not differ from 
other kinds of growth in intelligence. The sympa- 
thetic and social feelings and the sense of moral 
obligation also ripen gradually with the growth in 
intelligence. If left to themselves or to chance, these 
moral ideas, sympathies, and habits of judgment are 
easily perverted and the whole moral character 
wrecked. Indeed they require the most careful 
cultivation and direction by wise teachers and par- 
ents. No teacher or thinker would have the hardi- 
hood to deny these statements, and yet our schools 
have no definite plan for the cultivation of moral ideas 
and feelings. 

Fourth : The great central studies of the school 
course, such as reading, literature, and history, are 
full to overflowing with material of the best quality 
upon which the moral judgments and sympathies 



THE CHIEF AIM OF EDUCATION II 

may be directly cultivated. These forms of biography 
and history and literature which are coming to be 
most used in the schools, are especially fruitful in 
those personal, concrete forms of life which reveal 
simple moral ideas in a striking form. The chief fact 
to be observed is, that these studies, already used in 
the school, are preeminent for their moral worth, but 
have not been employed chiefly to bring out this form 
of culture and character growth. 

Fifth.: The school, however, is not limited in its 
sphere of opportunities to the theoretical treatment 
of morals, to the mere observation of moral ideas in 
stories, etc. It has abundant opportunity to lead 
over from moral judgments and sympathetic feelings 
to conduct. Every one concedes that it is as much 
the business of a teacher to look after the conduct 
of children as to supervise their acquisition of ideas 
and knowledge. The school itself is a social organi- 
zation, and children cannot live in its close relation- 
ships without practising the social virtues, or else 
violating them. Every day moral habits are being 
formed in the school, and the direct experience of 
these relations by the children in home and ^school 
must be the basis also of any interpretation of moral 
situations in stories, history, etc. But beyond this 
there is an increasing and emphatic demand that our 
schools shall be converted more and more into social 
institutions, that by means of the extension of social 
activities in cooking, weaving, industrial occupations. 



12 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

and cooperation, this social spirit shall be given freer 
scope. This will fit children better to understand, 
appreciate, and sympathize with the more intimate 
and complex social and industrial conditions into 
which the people are rapidly growing. We may even 
go so far as to say that the strongest and most intelli- 
gent demand made upon the school in late years is 
for greater socialization of its activities, and, in the 
last analysis, what does this mean, other than greater 
intellectual and moral insight, greater sympathy with 
our fellow-men, better social conduct, morality.'* The 
school therefore is not limited to the theory of 
morals. 

Sixth : The pedagogical applications of ethics and 
psychology have been developed far enough to fur- 
nish the teachers with a good scheme of moral train- 
ing, with a set of pedagogical principles with which 
the teacher can intelligently go to work to cultivate 
steadily and rationally the moral insight and feeling 
of children. 

These six considerations bearing upon the value of 
the moral aim in education seem to justify us as 
teachers in pushing it to the front and in concentrat- 
ing our energies upon its accomplishment. 

To summarize: i. The attainment of moral excel- 
lence in conduct is the perfection of the individual. 

2. Ability to fulfil the moral law in the social re- 
lations is the chief demand that society makes upon 
the individual. 



THE CHIEF AIM OF EDUCATION 1 3 

3. Moral enlightenment and growth toward moral 
conduct are subject to the same laws as other forms 
of mental culture. 

4. Several of the most important studies furnish 
peculiarly strong and appropriate material for moral 
instruction. 

5. The school is not narrowed to ethical theory. 
As a social organization, through its activities and 
discipline, it furnishes also the transition from theory 
to practice or conduct. 

6. A fairly complete and practical scheme of moral 
education on the basis of ethics and pedagogy is 
within the reach of teachers. 

Let us examine further the convictions upon which 
the moral aim rests. Every wise and benevolent 
parent knows that the first and last question to ask 
and to answer regarding a child is, "What are his 
moral quahty and strength ? " Now, who is better 
able to judge of the true aim than thoughtful and 
solicitous parents ? In the second place, it is incon- 
ceivable that a conscientious teacher should close 
his eyes to all except the intellectual training of his 
pupils. It is as natural for him to touch and awaken 
the moral qualities as it is for birds to sing. Again, 
the state is more concerned to see the growth of just 
and virtuous citizens than in seeing the prosperity of 
scholars, inventors, and merchants. It is also con- 
cerned with the success of the latter, but chiefly 
when their knowledge, skill, and wealth are regulated 



14 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

by their virtues. Our country may have vast re- 
sources and great opportunities, but everything in 
the end depends upon the moral quality of its men 
and women. Undermine and corrupt this, and we 
all know that there is nothing to hope for. The un- 
corrupted stock of true patriots in our land is firmly 
rooted in this conviction, which is worth more to the 
country than cornfields and iron mines. The per- 
petual enticement and blandishment of worldly suc- 
cess so universal in our time cannot move us if we 
found our theory and practice upon the central doc- 
trine of moral education. Education, therefore, in 
its popular untrammelled, moral sense, is the greatest 
concern of the state. 

In projecting a general plan of popular education 
we are beholden to the prejudices of no man nor class 
of men. Not even the traditional prejudices of the 
great body of teachers should stand in the way of 
setting up the noblest ideal of education. Educa- 
tional thinkers are in duty bound to free themselves 
from utilitarian notions and narrowness, and to 
adopt the best platform that children by natural 
birthright can stand upon. They are called upon to 
find the best and to apply it to as many as possible. 
Let it be remembered that each child has a complete 
growth before him. His own possibilities, and not 
the attainments of his parents and elders, are the 
things to consider. 

Shall we seek to avoid responsibility for the moral 



THE CHIEF AIM OF EDUCATION 1 5 

aim by throwing it upon the family and the church ? 
But the more we probe into educational problems, 
the more we shall find the essential unity of all edu- 
cational forces. The citadel of a child's life is his 
moral character, whether the home, the school, or 
the church build and strengthen its walls. If asked 
to define the relation of the school to the home, we 
shall quickly see that they are one in spirit and lead- 
ing purpose, that instead of being separated they 
should be brought closer together. 

In conclusion, therefore, shall we make moral 
character the clear and conscious aim of school edu- 
cation, and then subordinate school studies and disci- 
pline, mental training and conduct, to this aim } It 
will be a great stimulus to thousands of teachers to 
discover that this is the real purpose of school work, 
and that there are abundant means not yet used of 
realizing it. Having once firmly grasped this idea, 
they will find that there is no other having half its 
potency. It will put a substantial foundation under 
educational labors both theoretical and practical, 
which will make them the noblest of enterprises. 
Can we expect the public school to drop into such a 
purely subordinate function as that of intellectual 
training, to limit its influence to an almost mechani- 
cal action, the sharpening of the mental tools? 
Stated in this form, it becomes an absurdity. 

Is it reasonable to suppose that the rank and file 
of our teachers will realize the importance of this 



1 6 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

aim in teaching, so long as it has no recognition in 
our pubHc system of instruction ? The moral ele- 
ment is largely present among educators as an in- 
stinct, but it ought to be evolved into a clear purpose 
with definite means of accomplishment. It is an 
open secret, in fact, that while our public instruction 
is ostensibly secular, having nothing to do directly 
with religion or morals, there is nothing about which 
good teachers are more thoughtful and anxious than 
about the means of moral influence. Occasionally 
some one from the outside attacks our pubHc schools 
as without morals and godless, but there is no lack 
of stanch defenders on moral grounds. Theoreti- 
cally and even practically, to a considerable extent, 
we are all agreed upon the supreme value of moral 
education. But there is a striking inconsistency in 
our whole position on the school problem. While 
the supreme value of the moral aim will be generally 
admitted, it has no open recognition in our school 
course, either as a principal or as a subordinate aim 
of instruction. Moral education is not germane to 
the avowed purposes of the public school. If it gets 
in at all, it is by the back door. It is incidental, not 
primary. The importance of making the leading aim 
of education clear and conscious to teachers, is 
great. If their conviction on this point is not clear, 
they will certainly not concentrate their attention 
and efforts upon its realization. Again, in a busi- 
nesslike education, where there are so many impor- 



THE CHIEF AIM OF EDUCATION 



17 



tant and necessary results to be reached, it is very- 
easy and common to put forward a subordinate aim, 
and to lift it into undue prominence, even allowing 
it to swallow up all the energies of teacher and 
pupils. Owing to this diversity of opinion among 
teachers as to the results to be reached, our public 
schools exhibit a chaos of conflicting ^theory and 
practice, and a numberless brood of hobby-riders. 

How to establish the moral aim in the centre of 
the school course, how to subordinate and reaHze the 
other educational aims while keeping this chiefly in 
view, how to make instruction and school discipline 
contribute unitedly to the formation of vigorous moral 
character, and how to unite home, school, and other 
life experiences of a child in perfecting the one great 
aim of education — these are some of the problems 
whose solution will be sought in the following 
chapters. 

It will be especially our purpose to show how 
school instruction can be brought into the direct ser- 
vice of character-building. This is the point upon 
which most teachers are sceptical. Not much effort 
has been made until recently to put the best moral 
materials into the school course. In one whole set 
of school studies, and that the most important (read- 
ing, literature, and history), the chapter on relative 
values will show that there is opportunity through all 
the grades for a vivid and direct cultivation of moral 
ideas and convictions. The second great series of 
c 



1 8 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

studies, the natural sciences, comes in to support the 
moral aims, while the personal example and influence 
of the teacher, and the common experiences and inci- 
dents of school life and conduct, give abundant occa- 
sion to apply and enforce moral ideas. 

That the other justifiable aims of education, such 
as physical training, mental discipline, orderly habits, 
gentlemanly conduct, practical utility of knowledge, 
liberal culture, and the free development of individu- 
ality, will not be weakened by placing the moral aim in 
the forefront of educational motives, we are convinced. 

Herbart has stated the moral aim of education at 
the beginning of his " Outlines of Educational Doc- 
trine," Lange and De Garmo, pp. 7 and 8, as fol- 
lows : — 

" The term * virtue * expresses the whole purpose of 
education. Virtue is the idea of inner freedom which 
has developed into an abiding actuality in an individ- 
ual. Whence, as inner freedom is a relation between 
insight and volition, a double task is at once set be- 
fore the teacher. It becomes his business to make 
actual each of these two factors separately, in order 
that a later permanent relationship may result. 

" But even here, at the outset, we need to bear in 
mind the identity of morality with the effort put forth 
to realize the permanent actuality of the harmony 
between insight and volition. To induce the pupil 
to make this effort is a difficult achievement ; at all 
events, it becomes possible only when the twofold 



THE CHIEF AIM OF EDUCATION 1 9 

training mentioned above is well under way. It is 
easy enough, by the study of the example of others, 
to cultivate theoretical acumen. The moral appli- 
cation to the pupil himself, however, can be made, 
with hope of success, only in so far as his inclinations 
and ha)Dits have taken a direction in keeping with his 
insight." ^ 



CHAPTER II 

RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 

Being convinced that the controlling aim of educa- 
tion should be moral, and that all the activities and 
studies of the school should contribute either directly 
or indirectly to this aim, we shall now inquire into 
the relative value of different studies and their fitness 
to reach and satisfy this aim. As measured upon 
this cardinal purpose, what is the intrinsic value of 
each and all the school studies ? The branches of 
knowledge furnish the materials upon which the self- 
activity of the child may develop itself. The com- 
plex web of his knowledge, interests, and volitional 
activities can be woven in the schoolroom into a 
closer and firmer texture. Before entering upon such 
a long and uphill task as education, with its many 
complexities and weighty results, it is prudent to esti- 
mate not only the end in view but the best means for 
reaching it. Many and varied means have been 
offered, some trivial, others valuable. A careful 
measurement with some reliable standard of the ma- 
terials furnished by the common school is our first 
task. To what extent does history contribute to our 
purpose } What importance have geography and 

20 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 21 

arithmetic ? How do reading, natural science, and 
constructive activity aid a child to grow into the full 
stature of a man or woman ? 

These questions are not new, but the answer to 
them has been long delayed. Since the time of 
Comenius, to say the least, they have seriously dis- 
turbed educators. But few have had the courage, 
industry, and breadth of mind of a Comenius, to 
sound the educational waters and to lay out a profit- 
able chart. In spite of Comenius's labors, however, 
and of those of other educational reformers, be they 
never so energetic, practical progress toward a final 
answer, as registered in school courses, has been ex- 
tremely slow. 

Herbert Spencer says in " Education," p. 26 : — 
** If there needs any further evidence of the rude, 
undeveloped character of our education, we have it 
in the fact that the comparative worths of the differ- 
ent kinds of knowledge have been as yet scarcely 
even discussed, much less discussed in a methodic 
way with definite results. Not only is it that no 
standard of relative values has yet been agreed 
upon, but the existence of any such standard has 
not been conceived in any clear manner. And not 
only is it that the existence of such a standard has 
not been clearly conceived, but the need of it seems 
to have been scarcely even felt. Men read books 
upon this topic and attend lectures upon that, de- 
cide that their children shall be instructed in these 



22 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

branches and not in those ; and all under the guid- 
ance of mere custom, or liking, or prejudice, without 
ever considering the enormous importance of deter- 
mining in some rational way what things are really 
most worth learning. . . . Men dress their chil- 
dren's minds as they do their bodies, in the prevail- 
ing fashion." 

Spencer sees clearly the importance of this prob- 
lem and gives it a vigorous discussion in his first 
chapter, " What knowledge is of most worth ? " But 
the question is a broad and fundamental one, and in 
his preference for the natural sciences he seems to 
us not to have maintained a just balance of educa- 
tional forces in preparing a child for "complete liv- 
ing." His theory needs also to be worked out into 
greater detail and applied to school conditions before 
it can be of much value to teachers. Great changes 
and reforms indeed have been started, especially 
within the last fifty years, but they have been under- 
taken under the pressure of general popular demands 
and have resulted in compromises between tradi- 
tional forces and urgent popular needs. An ade- 
quate philosophical inquiry into the relative merit 
of studies and into their adaptability to nurture men- 
tal, moral, and physical qualities, has not been made. 
In the report of the Committee of Fifteen and in 
the discussions which have followed it, this question 
has assumed important proportions, and has fully 
aroused educational workers. 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 23 

The Germans have gone deeply into this problem. 
Quite a number of able thinkers among them have 
given theif" best years to the study of relative educa- 
tional values and to a working out of its results. 
Herbart, Ziller, Stoy, and Rein were deeply inter- 
ested in philosophy and psychology as life-long 
teachers of these subjects at the university, but in 
their practice schools in the same place they also 
stood daily face to face with the primary difficulties 
of ordinary teaching. At the outset, and before lay- 
ing out a course of study, they were compelled to 
meet and settle the aim of education and the problem 
of relative values. Having answered these questions 
to their own satisfaction, they proceeded to work out 
in detail a common school course. The Herbart 
school of teachers has presumed to call its interpre- 
tation of educational ideas " scientific pedagogy," a 
somewhat pretentious name in view of the fact that 
many leading educators in Germany, England, and 
elsewhere deny the existence of such a science. But 
if not a science, it is at least a serious attempt at one. 
The exposition of principles that follows is largely 
derived from them. 

With us the present time is favorable to a rational 
inquiry into relative educational values and to a 
thoroughgoing application of the results to school 
courses and methods. 

In the first place the old classical monopoly is 
finally and completely broken, at least so far as the 



24 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

common school is concerned. It ruled education for 
several centuries, but now even its methods of disci- 
pline are losing their antique hold. The natural 
sciences, modern history, and literature have assumed 
an equal place with the old classical studies in col- 
lege courses. Freed from old traditions and prej- 
udice, our common school is now grounded in the 
vernacular, in the national history and literature, and 
in home geography and natural science. Its roots 
go deep into native soil. Secondly, the door of the 
common school has been thrown open to the new 
studies, and they have entered in a troop. History, 
drawing, natural science, manual training, modern 
literature, and physical culture have been added to 
the old reading, writing, and arithmetic. The com- 
mon school was never so untrammelled. It is free to 
absorb into its course the select materials of the best 
studies. Teachers really enjoy more freedom in se- 
lecting and arranging subjects and in introducing new 
things than they know how to make use of. There 
is no one in high authority to check the reform 
spirit, and even local boards are often among the 
advocates of change. In the third place, by multi- 
plying studies, the common school course has grown 
more complex and heterogeneous. The old reading, 
writing, arithmetic, and grammar could not be shelved 
for the sake of the new studies, and the same amount 
of time must be divided now among many branches. 
It is not to be wondered at if all the studies are 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 25 

treated in a shallow and fragmentary way. Some 
of the studies, especially, are not well taught. There 
is less of unity in education now than there was be- 
fore the classical studies and *' the three R's " lost 
their supremacy. Our common school course has 
become a batch of miscellanies. We are in danger 
of overloading pupils, as well as of making a super- 
ficial hodge-podge of all branches. There is impera- 
tive need for sifting the studies according to their 
value, ^s well as for bringing them into right connec- 
tion and dependence upon one another. The corre- 
lation of studies, which is not only discussed but 
seriously undertaken in many quarters, is charged 
with the solution of this part of the problem. The 
superficial and miscellaneous character of our pres- 
ent school course will give place, by means of proper 
adjustment and interconnection of studies, to a deeper 
and stronger unity than we have yet found. Fourthly, 
there is a large body of thoughtful and inquiring teach- 
ers and principals who are working at a revision of 
the school course. They seek something tangible, 
a working plan, which will help them in their pres- 
ent perplexities and show them a wise use of draw- 
ing, music, art, manual training, natural science, 
and literature, in harmony with the other studies. 
Finally, since we are in the midst of such a break- 
ing-up period, we need to take our bearings. In 
order to avoid mistakes and excesses, there is a call 
for deep, impartial, and many-sided thinking on 



26 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

educational problems. Supposing that we know 
what the controlling aim of education is, we are 
next led to inquire about and to determine, as well 
as we can, the relative value of studies as tributary 
to this aim. 

/in attempting this comprehensive survey of studies 
tve must keep in mind also the development of the 
active powers in children, both physical and mental, 
and the demands of the social and economic world 
into which their growing powers will fit. The unrest- 
ing energy of educational thought and discussion has 
lifted into prominence a number of big problems in 
connection with the school course, such as the value 
and functions of natural science ; the ministry of the 
fine arts, including literature, in education ; the value 
of the expressive and constructive energies of chil- 
dren in drawing, moulding, games and physical exer- 
cises, manual training and industrial work ; the 
subordination of the instrumental studies Hke reading, 
writing, and language to those having a richer knowl- 
edge content, like science and literature, and others. 
The mention of these large and as yet unsettled 
questions and the number of new studies which have 
not yet attained a sure footing in the school course, 
suggest the breadth of the field of inquiry upon which 
we are launched. 

Instead of discussing the many branches of study 
one after another, it may be well to make a broad 
division of them into three classes and observe the 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 



27 



marked features and value of each. First, history, 
inchiding the subject-matter of biography, history, 
story, and other parts of Uterature. Second, the 
natural sciences. Third, the formal studies, — gram- 
mar, writing, much of arithmetic, and the symbols 
used in reading. 

The first two open up the great fields of real 
knowledge and experience, the world of man and of 
external nature, the two great reservoirs of interest- 
ing facts. We will first examine these two fields 
and consider their value as constituent parts of the 
school course. 
r History, in our present sense, includes what we 
f usually understand by it, as American history, modern 
I and ancient history, also biography, tradition, fiction 
as expressing human life and the novel or romance, 
and historical and literary masterpieces of all sorts, 
as the drama, historical novels, and the epic poem, 
so far as they delineate man's experience and char- 
acter. In a still broader sense, history includes 
language as the expression of men's thoughts and 
feelings. But this is the formal side of history with 
which we are not at present concerned. History deals 
with men's motives and actions as individuals or in 
i society, with their dispositions, habits, and institutions, 
' and with the monuments and Uterature they have left. 
From the standpoint of the aim which we have set 
up, our first inquiry is in regard to the moral signifi- 
cance of the broad field of history. 



28 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

The relations of persons to each other in society- 
give rise to morals. How ? The act of a person — 
as when a fireman rescues a child from a burning 
building — shows a disposition in the actor. We 
praise or condemn this disposition as the deed is 
good or bad. But each moral judgment, given with 
honesty and feeling, leaves the child stronger. To 
appreciate and judge fairly the life and acts of a 
woman like Mary Lyon, or of a man such as Samuel 
Armstrong, is to awaken something of their spirit 
and moral temper in ourselves. Whether in the life 
of David or of Shylock, or of the people whom they 
typify, the study of men is primarily a study of 
morals, of conduct. It is in the personal hardships, 
struggles, and mutual contact of men that motives 
and moral impulses are observed and weighed. In 
such men as John Bunyan, William the Silent, and 
John Quincy Adams, we are much interested to know 
what qualities of mind and heart they possessed, and 
especially what human sympathies and antipathies 
they felt. Livingstone embodied in his African life 
certain Christian virtues which we love and honor 
the more because they were so severely and success- 
fully tested. Although the history of men and of 
society has many uses, its best influence is in illus- 
trating and inculcating moral ideas. It is teaching 
morals by example. Even living companions often 
exert less influence upon children than the characters 
impressed upon their minds from reading. The 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 



29 



deliberate plan of teachers and parents might make 
this influence more salutary and effective. 

It will strike most teachers as a surprise to say 
that the chief use of history study is to form moral 
notions in children. Their experience with this 
branch of school work has been quite different. 
They have not so regarded nor used history. It has 
been generally looked upon as a body of useful in- 
formation that intelHgent persons must possess. Our 
history texts also have been constructed for another 
purpose, namely, to summarize and present impor- 
tant facts in as brief space as possible, not to reveal 
personal actions and character as a formative moral 
influence in the education of the young. Even as 
sources of valuable information, Spencer shows that 
our histories have been extremely deficient; but for 
moral purposes they are almost worthless. 

Now moral dispositions are a better fruitage and 
test of worth in men than any intellectual acquire- 
ments. History is already a recognized study of 
admitted value in the schools. It is a shame to strip 
it of that content and of that influence which are 
its chief merit. To study the conduct of persons as 
illustrating right actions is, in quality, the highest 
form of instruction. Other very important things 
are also involved in a right study of history. There 
are economic, pohtical, and social institutions evolved 
out of previous history, there are present intricate 
problems to be approached and understood. But 



30 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

all these questions rest to a large extent upon moral 
principles. While these political, social, and eco- 
nomic interests are beyond the present reach of chil- 
dren, biography, individual life and action in thfeir 
simple forms, are plain to their understanding. They 
not only make moral conduct real and impressive, but 
they gradually lead up to the appreciation of history 
in its social and institutional forms. 

Some of the best historical materials (from biog- 
raphy, tradition, and fiction) should be absorbed by 
children in each grade as an essential part of the sub- 
stratum of moral ideas. This implies more than a 
collection of historical stories in a supplementary 
reader for intermediate grades. It means that history, 
in the broad sense, is to be an important study in 
every grade, and that it shall become a centre and 
reservoir from which history proper, literature, read- 
ing books, and language lessons draw their supplies. 
These biographies, stories, poems, and historical epi- 
sodes must be the best which our history and classic 
literature can furnish, and whatever is of like virtue 
in the life of other kindred peoples, of England, Ger- 
many, Greece, etc. 

The testimony of many men is that the study of 
Plutarch's lives produced a profound impression upon 
' them, influencing their standards and ideals of char- 
acter. The Bible stories of patriarchs, judges, 
prophets, and kings, revealing personal character in 
illustrative deeds, have made deep marks upon the 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 3 1 

character of boys and girls for many hundreds of 
years and in many nations. The moulding influence 
of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey," the Bible of the 
Greeks, upon that wonderful people was almost crea- 
tive. When we think of such books as " Pilgrim's 
Progress," " The Autobiography of Franklin," " Rob- 
inson Crusoe," " Goethe's Autobiography," Macau- 
lay's "Essays on Johnson and Milton," Scott's "Tales 
of a Grandfather," and Hawthorne's " Biographical 
Sketches," we are surprised at the wide-reaching 
influence of stories of personal life and action. In 
the history of the church the most commanding influ- 
ences have gone out from the personal history of 
Paul, Stephen, Peter, and Barnabas, to say nothing of 
Christ himself as shown in the Gospels. The vital 
force in church history centres itself largely in such 
men as Augustine, Loyola, Luther, CoHgny, Wesley, 
Calvin, Knox, and what has been known of their 
personal lives. In political history the same can be 
said of Winthrop, Hamilton, Washington, Jackson, 
Clay, and others. The power of biographical story 
reveals itself in equal force in England, Germany, 
France, America, and in the ancient nations. 

How the personality of Socrates prints itself with 
distinct impression upon every one who reads Xeno- 
phon ! The historical novels of Scott, Kingsley, and 
Ebers illustrate the same penetrating influence of 
personal narrative. These few examples are perhaps 
sufficient to suggest the value of such historical 



32 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

material for moral educative purposes. These cover 
only a part of the field. Dramas, poems, novels, and 
history proper are equally potent for moral culture. 

If history in this sense can be made a strong aux- 
iliary to moral education in common schools, the 
whole body of earnest teachers will be gratified. For 
there is no theme among them of such perennial 
interest and depth of meaning as moral culture in 
schools. It is useless to talk of confining our teachers 
to the intellectual exercises outlined in text-books. 
They are conscious of dealing with children of moral 
susceptibility. In our meetings, discussions on the 
means of moral influence are more frequent and ear- 
nest than on any other topic ; and in their daily work 
hundreds of our teachers are aiming at moral charac- 
ter in children more than at anything else. As they 
free themselves from mechanical requirements and 
begin to recognize their true function, they discover 
the transcendent importance of moral education, that 
it underHes and gives meaning to all the other work 
of the teacher. 

But teachers heretofore have taken a narrow view 
of the moral influences at their disposal. Their ever 
recurring emphatic refrain has been " the example 
of the teacher," and, to tell the truth, there is no 
better means of instilling moral ideas than the pres- 
ence and inspiration of a high-principled teacher. 
We know, however, that teachers need moral stimulus 
and-encouragement as much as anybody. It will not 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 33 

do to suppose that they have reached the pinnacle 
of moral excellence and can stand as all-sufficient 
exemplars to children. The teacher himself must 
have food as well as the children. He must partake 
of the loaf he distributes to them. The clergyman 
also should be an example of Christian virtue, but he 
preaches the gospel as illustrated in the life of Christ, 
of St. Paul, and of others. In pressing home moral 
and religious truths his appeal is to great sources of 
inspiration which lie outside of himself. Why should 
the teacher rely upon his own unaided example more 
than the preacher .'' No teacher can feel that he 
embodies in himself, except in an imperfect way, the 
strong moral ideas that have made the history of 
good men worth reading. No matter what resources 
he may have in his own character, the teacher needs 
to employ moral forces that lie outside of himself, 
ideals toward which he struggles and toward which 
he inspires and leads others. The very fact that he 
appreciates and admires a man like Longfellow or 
Peter Cooper will stir the children with like feeHngs. 
In this sense it is a mistake to centre all attention 
upon the conduct of the teacher. He is but a guide, 
or, like Goldsmith's preacher, he allures to brighter 
worlds and leads the way. It is better for pupil and 
teacher to enter into the companionship of common 
aims and ideals. For them to study together and 
admire the conduct of Roger Wilhams is to bring 
them into closer sympathy, and what do teachers 



34 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

need more than to get into personal sympathy with 
their children? Let them climb the hill together, 
and enjoy the views together, and grow so intimate in 
their aims and sympathies that after-life cannot break 
the bond. When the inspirations and aims thus 
gained have gradually changed into tendencies and 
habits, the child is morally full-fledged. It is high 
ground upon which to place a youth, or aid in placing 
him, but it is clearly in view. 

It is only gradually that moral ideas gain an 
ascendency, first over the thoughts and feehngs of a 
child, and, later still, over his conduct. Many good 
impressions at first seem to bear no fruit in action. 
But examples and experience reiterate the truth till it 
finds a firm lodgement and begins to act as a check 
upon natural impulses. Many a child reads the 
stories in the Youth's Companion with absorbing 
interest but in the home circle fails noticeably to 
imitate the conduct he admires. But moral ideas 
must grow a little before they can yield fruit. The 
seed of example must drop into the soil of the mind 
under favorable conditions ; it must germinate and 
send up its shoots to some height before its presence 
and nature can be clearly seen. The application of 
moral ideas to conduct is very important, even in 
childhood, but patience and care are necessary in 
most cases. There must be timely sowing of the 
seed and judicious cultivation, if good fruits are 
to be gathered later on. There is indeed much 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 35 

anxiety and painful uncertainty on the part of those 
who charge themselves with the moral training of 
children. Labor and birth pains are antecedent to 
the delivery of a moral being. Then, again, a child 
must develop according to what is in him, according 
to his nature and peculiar disposition. The processes 
of growth are within him, and the best you can do 
is to give them scope. He is free, and you are bound 
to minister to his best freedom. The common school 
age is 4:he formative period. At six a child is morally 
immature ; at fifteen perhaps the die has been 
stamped. This youthful wilderness must be crossed. 
We can't turn back. There is no other way of reach- 
ing the promised land. But there are rebellions and 
baitings and disorderly scenes. 

This is a tortuous road. Isn't there a quicker 
and easier way ? The most speedily constructed 
road across this region is a short treatise on morals 
for teacher and pupil. In this way it is possible 
to have all the virtues and faults tabulated, labelled, 
and transferred in brief space to the minds of the 
children (if the discipline is rigorous enough). Swal- 
low a catechism, reduced to a verbal memory product. 
Pack away the essence of morals in a few general 
laws and rules, and have the children learn them. 
Some day they may understand. What astounding 
faith in memory-cram and dry forms ! We can 
pave such a road through the fields of moral science, 
but when a child has travelled it, is he a whit better ? 



36 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

No such paved road is good for anything. It isn't 
even comfortable. It has been tried dozens of times 
in much less important fields of knowledge than 
morals. Moral ideas spring up out of experience 
with persons either in real life or in the books we 
read. Examples of moral action drawn from life 
are the only thing that can give meaning to moral] 
precepts. If we see a harsh man beating his horse, 
we get an ineffaceable impression of harshness. 
By reading the story of the Black Beauty we 
acquire a lively sympathy for animals. Then the 
maxim " A merciful man is merciful to his beast " 
will be a good summary of the impressions received. 
Moral ideas always have a concrete basis or origin. 
Some companion with whose feelings and actions 
you are in close personal contact, or some character 
from history or fiction by whose personality you 
have been strongly attracted, gives you your keen- 
est impressions of moral qualities. To begin with 
abstract moral teaching, or to put faith in it, is to 
misunderstand children. In morals, as in other 
forms of knowledge, children are overwhelmingly 
interested in personal and individual examples, 
things which have form, color, action. The attempt 
to sum up the important truths of a subject and 
present them as abstractions to children is almost 
certain to be a failure, pedagogically considered. 
It has been demonstrated again and again, even in 
high schools, that botany, chemistry, physics, and 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 37 

zoology cannot be taught by such brief scientific 
compendia of rules and principles — " Words, words, 
words," as Hamlet said. We cannot learn geography 
from definitions and map questions, nor morals from 
catechisms. And just as in natural science we are 
resorting perforce to plants, animals, and natural 
phenomena, so in morals we turn to the deeds and 
lives of men. Columbus in his varying fortunes 
leaves vivid impressions of the moral strength and 
weakness of himself and of others. John Winthrop 
gives frequent examples of generous and unselfish 
good-will to the settlers of Boston. Little Lord 
Fauntleroy is a better treatise on morals for children 
than any of our sermonizers have written. We must 
get at morals without moralizing and drink in moral 
convictions without resorting to moral platitudes. 
Educators are losing faith in words, definitions, and 
classifications. It is a truism that we can't learn 
chemistry or zoology from books alone, nor can 
moral judgments be rendered except from individual 
actions. 

A little reflection will show that we are only 
demanding object lessons in the field of moral edu- 
cation, extensive, systematic object lessons; choice 
experiences and episodes from human life, simple 
and clear, painted in natural colors, as shown by 
our best history and literature. To appreciate the 
virtues and vices, to sympathize with better impulses, 
we must travel beyond words and definitions till 



38 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

we come in contact with the personal deeds that 
first give rise to them. The Hfe of Martin Luther, 
with its faults and merits honestly represented, is 
a powerful moral tonic to the reader; the auto- 
biography of FrankHn brings out a great variety of 
homely truths in the form of interesting episodes ; 
in his career. Adam Bede and Romola impress j 
us more powerfully and permanently than the best 
sermons, because the individual realism in them 
leads to an unequalled vividness of moral judgment , 
upon their acts. King Lear teaches us the folly '■ 
of a rash judgment with overwhelming force. Evan- 
geHne awakens our sympathies as no moralist ever 
dreamed of doing. Uncle Tom, in Mrs. Stowe's 
story, was a stronger preacher than Wendell Phil- 
lips. William Tell, in Schiller's play, kindles our 
love for heroic deeds into an enthusiasm. The best 
myths, historical biographies, novels, and dramas 
are the richest sources of moral stimulus because 
they lead us into the immediate presence of those 
men and women whose deeds stir up our moral 
natures. In the representations of the masters we 
are in the presence of moral ideas clothed in flesh 
and blood, real and yet ideaHzed. Generosity is 
not a name, but the act of a person which wins our 
interest and favor. To get the impress of kind- 
ness we must see an act of kindness and feel the 
glow it produces. When Sir Philip Sidney, wounded 
on the battlefield and suffering with thirst, reached 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 39 

out his hand for a cup of water that was brought, 
his glance fell upon a dying soldier who viewed 
the cup with great desire ; Sidney handed him the 
water with the words, " Thy necessity is greater 
than mine." No one can refuse his approval for 
this act. After telling the story of the man who 
went down to Jericho and fell among thieves, and 
then of the priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan 
who passed that way, Jesus put the question to his 
critic, "Who was neighbor to him that fell among 
thieves .'' " And the answer came even from un- 
willing lips, " He that showed mercy." When we 
see Nathan Hale on the scaffold regretting that he 
had but one life to lose for his country, we realize 
better what patriotism is. On the other hand, it is 
natural to condemn wrong deeds when presented 
clearly and objectively in the action of another. 
Nero caused Christians to be falsely accused and 
then to be condemned to the claws of wild beasts 
in the arena. When such cruelty is practised 
against the innocent and helpless, we condemn the 
act. When Columbus was thrown into chains in- 
stead of being rewarded, we condemn the Spaniards. 
In the same way the real world of persons about 
us, the acts of parents, companions, and teachers, 
are powerful in giving a good or bad tone to our 
sentiments, because, as living object lessons, their 
impress is directly and constantly upon us. 

In such cases, taken from daily experience and 



40 



THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 



from illustrations of personal conduct in books, it is 
possible to observe how moral judgments originate 
and by repetitions grow into convictions. They 
spring up naturally and surely when we understand 
well the circumstances under which an act was per- 
formed. The interest and sympathy felt for the 
persons lends great vividness to the judgments ex- 
pressed. Each individual act stands out clearly and 
calls forth a prompt and unerring approval or dis- 
approval. (But later the judgment must react upon 
our own conduct.) The examples are simple and 
objective, free from selfish interest on the child's 
part, so that good and bad acts are recognized in 
their true quality. These simple moral judgments 
are only a beginning, only a sowing of the seed. 
But harvests will not grow and ripen unless seed 
has been laid in the ground. It is a long road to 
travel before these early moral impressions develop 
into firm convictions which rule the conduct of an 
adult. But education is necessarily a slow process, 
and it is likely to be a perverted one unless the foun- 
dation is carefully laid in. early years. The fitting 
way, then, to cultivate moral judgments, that is, to 
start just ideas of right and wrong, of virtues and 
vices, is by a regular and systematic presentation of 
persons illustrating noble and ignoble acts. A pref- 
erence for the right and an aversion for the wrong 
will be the sure result of careful teaching. Habits 
of judging will be formed and strong moral convic- 



I 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 4 1 

tions established which may be gradually brought to 
influence and control action. 

The objector intrudes at this point with the warn- 
ing that moral character consists in action and not 
in reading stories ; that what children need is not so 
much abundance of this reading matter as opportuni- 
ties to behave themselves in practical and social 
relations. At the same time we are willing to em- 
phasize the social environment and activities which 
develop and confirm moral habits. But at present 
we are trying to define and illustrate the conditions 
of moral awakening and of steady moral enhghten- 
ment, and the early formation of those attractive 
ideals which may be strengthened and wrought into 
conduct as opportunity offers. 

A good share of the influences that are thrown 
around an ordinary child needs to be counteracted. 
It can be done to a considerable extent by instruc- 
tion. Many of the interesting characters of history 
are better company for us and for children than our 
neighbors and contemporaries. For the purposes 
of moral example and inspiration we may select as 
companions for them the best persons in history. 
Their acts are personal, biographical, and interesting, 
and appeal at once to children as well as to their 
elders. There is no good reason why a much greater 
number of our school children should not be brought 
under the influence of the best books suited to their 
ao:e. Here is a source of educational influence of 



42 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

high qiiahty which is left too much to accident and 
to the natural, unaided instinct of children. A few 
get the benefit, but many more are capable of receiv- 
ing it. How much better the school choice and 
treatment of such books may be than the loose and 
miscellaneous reading of children, is discussed in 
" Special Method in Reading." A fit introduction 
of children to this class of literature should be in 
the hands of teachers, and all the later reading of 
pupils will feel the salutary effect. 

If this is the proper origin and culture of moral 
ideas, we desire to know how to utilize it in the common 
school course. It can only be done by an extensive 
use of historical and literary materials in all grades, 
with the conscious purpose of shaping moral ideas 
and character. That the school has such influence 
at its disposal cannot be reasonably denied by any 
one who believes that the family or the church can 
affect the moral character of their children. It may 
be objected that the school thus takes up the proper 
work of the home, when it ought to be occupied with 
other things. Would that the homes were all good ! 
But even if they were, the teacher could not fold his 
arms over a responsibility removed. As soon as a 
boy enters school, if not sooner, he begins, in some 
sense, to outgrow the home. New influences and 
interests find a lodgement in his affections. Compan- 
ions, the wider range of his acquaintances, studies, 
and ambitions, share now with the home. John 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 43 

Locke objected radically to English public schools 
on this account ; but even if we desired, we could not 
resort to private tutors, as Locke did, though with no 
great success. The child is growing and changing. 
Who shall organize unity out of the maze of thoughts, 
interests, and influences, casting out the useless and 
bad, combining and strengthening the good ^ The 
more service the home renders, the better. The 
child's range of thought and ambition is expanding. 
Who has the best survey of the field .<* In many 
cases, at least, the teacher, especially where the par- 
ents lack the culture, and the children need a guide. 
Who spends six hours a day directing these currents 
of thought and interest ? We are not disposed to 
underestimate the magnitude of the task here laid 
upon the teacher. The rights and duties of the home 
are not put in question. Indeed, the spirit of this 
kind of teaching is best illustrated in a good home. 
A teacher who has a father's anxiety in the real wel- 
fare of children will not forget his duty in watching 
their moral growth. The moral atmosphere of a 
good home will remain the ideal of the school. In 
fact, Herbart's plan of education originated not in 
a schoolroom, but in an excellent home in Switzer- 
land, where he spent three years in the private in- 
struction of three boys. The conscientious zeal with 
which he devoted himself to the moral and mental 
growth of these children is a model for teachers. 
The shaping of three characters was, according to 



44 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

his view, intrusted to him. The common notion of 
intellectual growth and strength which rules in such 
cases was at once subordinated to character develop- 
ment in the moral sense. Not that the two ideas are 
at all antagonistic, but one is more important than 
the other. The selection of reading matter, of stud- 
ies, and of employments was adapted to each boy 
with a view to influencing conduct and moral action. 
The Herbart school adheres to this view of educa- 
tion, and has transferred its spirit and method to the 
schools. The Herbartians have the hardihood, in 
this age of moral sceptics, to believe not only in 
moral example but also in moral teaching. (By 
moral sceptics we mean those who believe in morals 
but not in moral instruction.) They seek first of all 
historical materials of the richest moral content, in 
vivid personification, upon which to nourish the 
moral spirit of children. If properly treated, this 
subject-matter will soon win the children by its 
power over feeling and judgment. With Crusoe the 
child goes through every hardship and success; 
with Abraham he lives in tents, seeks pastures for 
his flocks, and generously marches out to the rescue 
of his kinsman. He should not read Csesar with 
a slow and toilsome drag (parsing and construing) 
that would render a bright boy stupid. If he goes 
with Caesar at all, he must build an agger, fight 
battles, construct bridges, and approve or condemn 
Caesar's acts. But we doubt the moral value of 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 45 

Caesar's Gallic wars for children. By reading Plu- 
tarch we may see that the Latins and Greeks, 
before the days of their degeneracy, nourished 
their rising youth upon the traditions of their 
ancestry. This education produced a strong and 
sinewy brood of moral qualities. Their great men 
were great characters, largely because of the mother- 
milk of national tradition and family training. In 
Scotch, English, and German history we are familiar 
with Alfred, Bruce, Siegfried, and many other heroes 
of similar value in the training of youth. 

It will be well for us to look into our own history 
and see what sort of moral heritage of educative 
materials it has left us. What noble examples does 
it furnish of right thought and action ? Have we 
any home-bred food for the nourishment of our 
growing youth .'' Our native American history is 
indeed nobler in tone and more abundant. For 
moral educative purposes in the training of the 
young the history of America, from the early ex- 
plorations and settlements along the Atlantic coast 
to the present, has scarcely a parallel in history. 
It was a race of moral heroes that led the first 
colonies to many of the early settlements. Winthrop, 
Penn, WiUiams, Oglethorpe, Raleigh, and Colum- 
bus were great and simple characters, deeply moral 
and practical. For culture purposes, where can their 
equal be found .'' And where was given a better 
opportunity for the display of personal virtues than 



46 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 



1 



by the leaders of these little danger-encircled com- 
munities ? The leaven of purity, piety, and manly 
independence which they brought with them and 
illustrated, has never ceased to work powerfully f 
among our people. Add to the above list such 
names as Davenport, Hooker, Eliot, Stark, Putnam, 
Washington, Champlain, Marquette, La Salle, Stuy- 
vesant, Sevier, Robertson, Boone, Clark, Lincoln, 
and Fremont, — men who struggled with pioneer 
dangers and hardships. Then join to this list the 
names of leaders and statesmen, poets, philanthro- 
pists, and inventors, preachers and educators of the 
people, and we have a remarkable list of men, dis- 
tinguished by strength and excellence of personal 
character. Why not bring the children into direct 
contact with these characters in the intermediate 
grades, not by short and sketchy stories, but by 
life pictures of these men and their surroundings ? 
We have not been wholly lacking in literary artists 
who have worked up a part of these materials into 
a more durable and acceptable form for our schools. 
We need to make an abundant use of this and other 
history for our boys and girls, not by devoting a 
year in the upper grades to a barren outline of 
American annals, but by a proper distribution of 
these and other similar rich treasures throughout 
the grades of the common school. 

Tradition and fiction are scarcely less valuable 
than biography and history, because of their vivid 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 47 

portrayal of strong and typical characters. Our 
own literature, and the world's literature at large, 
are a storehouse well stocked with moral educative 
materials, properly suited to children at different 
ages, if only sorted, selected, and arranged. But 
this requires broad knowledge of our best literature 
and clear insight into child-character at different 
ages. This problem will not be solved in a day, 
nor in a lifetime. 

In making a progressive series of our best his- 
torical and literary products, it is necessary to select 
those, materials which are better adapted than others 
to interest, influence, and mould the character of 
children at each time of life. It is now generally 
agreed by the best teachers that these selections 
shall be the best stories and classical masterpieces, 
— not in fragments, but as wholes. They should 
be those materials that bear the stamp of genuine 
nobility. Goethe says, " The best is good enough 
for children." For some years past, in our grammar 
grades we have been using some of the best selec- 
tions of Whittier, Longfellow, Bryant, and others ; 
and we are not even frightened by the length of 
such productions as " Evangeline," " The Lady of 
the Lake," or "Julius Caesar." A simple adapted 
version of " Robinson Crusoe " is used in some 
schools as a second reader. From time immemorial 
choice selections of prose and verse have formed 
the staple of our readers above the third. But 



48 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

generally these selections are scrappy and frag- 
mentary. Few of the great masterpieces have been 
used, because most of them are supposed to be 
too long. Broken fragments of our choice literary 
products have been served up, but the best literary 
works as wholes have never been given to the 
children in the schools. The Greek youth were 
better served with the " Iliad " and " Odyssey," and 
some of our grandfathers with the tales of the Old 
Testament. We now go still farther back in the 
child-life and make use of fairy tales in the first 
grade. But many are not yet able to realize that 
select fairy stories are genuinely classical, and that 
they are as well adapted to stimulate the minds of 
children as "Hamlet" the minds of adults.^ 

The chief aim of our schools all along has not 
been an appreciation of literary masterpieces, either 
in their moral or art value, but the acquisition of 
skill in reading, fluency, and naturalness of expres- 
sion. Our schools have been almost completely 
absorbed in the purely formal use of our literary 
materials, learning to read in the earlier grades and 
learning to read with rhetorical expression and con- 
fidence in the later ones. In the present argument 
our chief concern is not with the formal use of 
literary materials for practice in reading, but with 
the moral culture, conviction, and habit of life they 
may foster. Nor have we chiefly in view the art 

1 See "Special Method in Primary Reading and Story." 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 49 

side of our best literary pieces. Appreciation of 
beauty in poetry and of strength in prose is admi- 
rable and should contribute powerfully to the main 
purpose. Coming in direct and vivid contact with 
manly deeds or with unselfish acts as personified in 
choice biography, history, fiction, and real life, will 
inspire children with thoughts that make life worth 
living. Neither formal skill in reading nor apprecia- 
tion of literary art can atone for the lack of direct 
moral incentive which historical studies should give. 
All three ends should be reached. 
^ Many teachers are now calling for a change in 
the spirit with which the best biography and litera- 
ture are used. They call for an improvement in 
the quality and an increase in the quantity of com- 
plete historical episodes and of literary masterpieces. 
An appreciative reading of " Ivanhoe " revives the 
spirit of that age. The life of Samuel Adams is an 
epic that gives the youth a chance to live amid the 
stirring scenes of Boston in a notable time. Chil- 
dren are to live in thought and interest the lives of 
many men of other generations, as of Tell, Colum- 
bus, Livingstone, Lincoln, Penn, Franklin, and Fulton. 
They are to partake of the experiences of the best 
typical men in the story of our own and of other 
countries. 

The use of the best historical and literary works 
as a means of strengthening moral motives and 
principles with children whose minds and characters 



50 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

are developing, is a high aim in itself, and it will 
add interest and life to the formal studies, such as 
reading, spelhng, grammar, and composition, which 
spring out of this valuable subject-matter. 

History, in this broad and liberal sense, should be 
a powerful constituent of a child's education. That 
subject-matter which contains the essence of moral 
culture in generative form deserves to constitute the 
chief mental food of young people. The conviction 
of the high moral value of historic subjects and of 
their peculiar adaptability to children at different 
ages, brings us to a positive judgment as to their 
relative value among studies. The first question, 
preliminary to all others in the common school 
course, " What is the most important study } " is 
answered by putting the study of man in history and 
literature at the head of the list. 

"" Natural science takes the second place. In many 
respects it is coordinate with history. The object 
world, which is so interesting, so informing, and so 
interwoven with the needs, labors, and progress of 
men, furnishes the second great constituent of edu- 
cation for children. Botany, zoology, and the other 
natural sciences, taken as a unit, constitute the field 
of nature apart from man. They furnish us an 
understanding of the varied objects and complex 
phenomena of nature. It is one of the imperative 
needs of all human minds that have retained their 
childlike thoughtfulness and spirit of inquiry, to 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 51 

desire to understand nature, to classify the variety 
of objects and appearances, to trace the chain of 
causes, and to search out the simple laws of nature's 
operations. The command early came to men to 
subdue the earth, and we understand better than 
primitive man that it is subdued through investiga- 
tion and study. All the forces and bounties of 
nature are to be made serviceable to us, and it can 
only be done by understanding her facts and laws. 
The road to mastery leads through patient observa- 
tion, experiment, and study. 

But we are concerned with the educational value 
of the natural sciences. Waitz says : — 

*' A correct philosophy of the world and of life is 
possible to a person only on the basis of a knowledge of 
one's self and of one's relation to surrounding nature." 

Diesterweg says : — 

" No one can afford to neglect a knowledge of 
nature who desires to get a comprehension of the 
world and of God according to human possibility, 
or who desires to find his proper relation to Him and 
to real things. He who knows nothing of human 
history is an ignoramus, likewise he who knows 
nothing of natural science. To know nothing of 
either is a pure shame. Ignorance of nature is an 
unpardonable perversion." 

Kraepelin speaks as follows : — 

*' Instruction should open up to a pupil an under- 
standing of the present, and thereby furnish a basis 



52 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

for a frank and many-sided philosophy of life, rest- 
ing upon reality. But to the present belongs the 
world outside of us. Of this present there can be 
no such thing as an understanding unless it relates 
not only to inter-human relations, but also to rela- 
tions of man to animal, of animal to plant, and of 
organic life to inorganic life. The necessity of 
assuming a relation of our environment is unavoid- 
able, and this can only be done by acquainting our- 
selves with the surrounding world in every direction. 
This requirement would remain in force, though 
man, like a god, were set above nature and her 
laws. But man lives, acts, and dies not outside of 
but within the circle of nature's laws. This maxim 
is axiomatic and contains the final judgment against 
those who claim that a comprehensive but unified 
philosophy of life is possible without a knowledge 
of nature." 

Herbart says : — 

" Here (in nature) lies the abode of real truth, 
which does not retreat before tests into an inaccessi- 
ble past (as does history). This genuinely empirical 
character distinguishes the natural sciences and 
makes their loss irretrievable. It is here (in nature) 
that the object disentangles itself from all fancies 
and opinions, and constantly stimulates the spirit of 
observation. Here, then, is found an obstruction to 
extravagant thinking, such as the sciences themselves 
could not better devise." 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 53 

Ziller says : — 

" The natural sciences are necessary in education 
because from the province of nature (as well as from 
history) are derived those means and resources which 
are necessary to accomplish the purposes of the will 
in action. Means and forces are the natural condi- 
tions for the realization of aims. Without knowledge 
of and intelligent power over nature, it is difficult to 
realize that certain aims are possible; action cannot 
be successful ; will effort, based upon the firm con- 
viction of ability, that is, judicious exercise of will, 
is impossible." 

We quote also from Professor Rein : — 

" Let us observe in passing, that in the great 
industrial contest between civilized nations, that peo- 
ple will suffer defeat which falls behind in the cul- 
ture of natural science, and for this reason the 
motive of self-protection would demand natural 
science instruction. In favor of this teaching, the 
claim is further made that no science is so well 
adapted to train the mind to inductive thought pro- 
cesses as that which rests entirely upon induction, 
and that natural science study is in a position to 
resist more easily and successfully than all other 
studies the deeply rooted tendency in all branches 
to substitute words for ideas." 

Rein ('* Das vierte Schuljahr ") explains further the 
leading ideas and standpoints which have appeared 
in historical order among science teachers in the 



54 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

common school. From the first crude ideas there 

e. 

has been marked progress toward higher aims in 
science teaching. 

1. Natural history stories for entertainment. Many 
curious and entertaining facts in connection with ani- 
mal life were searched out, more especially unusual 
and spicy anecdotes of shrewdness and intelligence. 
Some of the old readers, and even of the recent ones, 
are enriched with such marvels. 

2. Utility, or the study of things in nature that are 
directly useful or hurtful to man. Whatever fruits 
or animals or herbs are of plain service to man, as 
well as things poisonous or dangerous, were studied 
because such information would be of future service. 
It is a purely practical aim, at first very narrow, but 
in an enlarged and liberal sense of much importance. 

3. Training of the senses and of the observing 
power. By a study and description of natural objects 
sense perception was to be sharpened and a habit 
of close observation formed. Among science teachers 
to-day no aim is more emphasized than this. It also 
stores away a body of useful ideas of great future 
value. This is an intellectual aim that accords better 
with the purpose of the school than the preceding. 

4. Analysis and determination of specimens. To 
examine and trace a plant, mineral, or insect to its 
true classification and name has occupied much of 
the time of students. It requires nice discrimination, 
a comprehensive grasp of relations, and a power to 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 55 

seize and hold common characteristics. Many of our 
text-books and courses of study are based chiefly 
upon this idea. 

5. System-making, or the reduction of all things 
in nature to a systematic whole, with a place for 
everything. Some of the greatest scientists, Lin- 
naeus, for example, looked upon scientific classifica- 
tion as the chief aim of nature study. It has had a 
great influence upon schools and teachers. The 
attempt to compress everything into a system has 
led to many text-books which are but brief sum- 
maries of sciences like zoology, botany, and physics. 
Scientific classification is very important, but the 
attempt to make it a leading aim in teaching children 
is a mistake. 

We may add that nature study is felt by all to 
offer abundant scope to the exercise of the aesthetic 
faculty. There is great variety of beauty and grace- 
fulness in natural forms in plant and animal ; the 
rich or delicate coloring of the clouds, of birds, of 
insects, and of plants, gives constant pleasure. Then 
there are grand and impressive scenery and phenom- 
ena in nature, and melody and harmony in nature's 
voices. 

These various aims of science study are valuable 
to the teacher as showing him the scope of his work ; 
but a higher and more comprehensive standpoint has 
been reached. We now realize that the great pur- 
pose of this study is insight into nature, into this 



56 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

whole physical environment, with a view to a better 
appreciation of her objects, forces, and laws, and of 
their bearing on human life and progress. 

All these purposes thus far developed in schools 
are to be considered as valuable subsidiary aims, 
leading up to the central purpose of the study of 
natural sciences, which is '*An understanding of life, 
and of the powers and of the unity which express 
themselves in nature " ; or, as Kraepelin says, — 

" Nature should not appear to man as an inextrica- 
ble chaos, but as a well-ordered mechanism, the parts 
fitting exactly to each other, controlled by unchang- 
ing laws, and in perpetual action and production." 

Humboldt is further quoted : — 

" Nature to the mature mind is unity in variety, 
unity of the manifold in form and combination, the 
content or sum total of natural things and natural 
forces as a living whole. The weightiest result, 
therefore, of deep physical study is, by beginning 
with the individual, to grasp all that the discoveries 
of recent times reveal to us, to separate single things 
critically and yet not be overcome by the mass of 
details, mindful of the high destiny of man, to com- 
prehend the mind of nature, which lies concealed 
under the mantle of phenomena." 

This sounds visionary and impracticable for chil- 
dren of the common schools, especially when we 
know that much lower aims have not been success- 
fully reached. In fact it cannot be said that the 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 57 

natural sciences have any recognized standing in the 
common school course. But it is worth the while 
to inquire whether natural sciences will ever be 
taught as they should be until the best attainable 
aims become the dominant principles for guiding 
teachers. Stripped of its rhetoric, the above- 
mentioned aim, " an understanding of life and of 
the unity of nature," may prove a practical and 
inspiring guide to the teacher. 

If we look upon nature as a field of observation 
and study which can be grasped as a whole, both 
as a work of creation and as contributing in multi- 
plied ways to man's needs, its proper study gives 
a many-sided culture to the mind. This leading 
purpose will bring into relation and unity all the 
subordinate aims of science teaching, such as in- 
formation, utility, training of the senses and judg- 
ment and of the power to compare and classify. 

For the accomplishment of this great purpose of 
gaining insight into nature's many-sided activities, 
there are several simple means not yet mentioned. 
Running through nature are great principles and 
laws which can be studied upon concrete examples, 
plain and interesting to a child. The study of the 
squirrel as to its home, habits, organs, and natural 
activities in the woods, will show how strangely 
adapted it is to its surroundings. But an observa- 
tion of the birds in the air and fishes in the water 
reveals the same curious fitness to surrounding 



Y- 



58 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

nature. The study of plants and animals in their 
adaptation to environment, of the relation between 
organ and function, between organs, mode of life, 
and environment, leads up to a general law which 
applies to all plants and animals. The law of growth 
and development, from the simple germ to the mature 
life-form, can be seen in the butterfly, the frog, and 
the sunflower. These laws and others in biology, if 
developed on concrete specimens, give much insight 
into the whole realm of nature, more stimulating by 
far than that based on scientific classifications, as 
orders, families, and species. The great and simple 
outlines of nature's work begin to appear out of such 
laws. 

Again, the study of the whole life-history of a plant 
or animal, in its relations to the inorganic world and 
to other plants and animals, is always a cross-section 
in the sciences and shows how all the natural sciences 
are knit together into a causal unity. Take the life- 
history of a hickory tree, — as it germinates and 
grows from the seed, how it draws from the earth 
and air; the effect of storms, seasons, and lightning 
upon it ; how it later furnishes huts to the squirrels 
and boys ; its branches may be the nesting-place for 
birds and its bark for insects ; finally, the uses of its 
tough wood for man are seen. The life of a squirrel 
or. of a honey-bee furnishes also a cross-section 
through all the sciences from the inorganic world 
up to man. 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 59 

If in tracing life-histories we take care to select 
typical subjects which exemplify, perhaps, thousands 
of similar cases, we shall materially shorten the road 
leading toward insight into nature. These types 
are concrete, and have all the interest and attrac- 
tiveness of individual life, but they also bring out 
characteristics which explain myriads of similar phe- 
nomena. A careful and detailed study of a single tree 
like the maple, with the circulation of the sap and 
the function of roots, bark, leaves, and woody fibre, 
will give an insight into the processes of growth 
upon 'which the life of the tree depends, and these 
processes will easily appear to be true of all tree and 
plant forms. 

In nature as it shows itself in the woods or in the 
pond, there is such a mingling and interdependence 
of the natural sciences upon each other that the 
book of nature seems totally different from books 
of botany, physics, and zoology as made by men. 
In the forest we find close together trees of many 
kinds, shrubs, flowering plants, vines, mosses, and 
ferns; grasses, beetles, worms and birds, squirrels, 
owls, and sunshine, rocks, soil, and springs, summer 
and winter, storms, frosts, and drouth. Plants depend 
upon the soil and upon each other. The birds and 
squirrels find their home and food among the trees 
and plants. The trees seem to grow together as if 
they needed each others' companionship. All the 
plants and animals depend upon the soil, air, and 



6o THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

climate, and the whole wood changes its garb and 
partly its guests with the seasons. A forest is a 
life society, consisting of mutually dependent parts. 
How nature disregards our conventional distinc- 
tions between the natural sciences ! We need no 
better proof than this, that they should not be taught 
chiefly from books. A child might learn a myriad 
of things in the woods, and gain much insight into 
nature's ways, without making any clear distinction 
between botany, zoology, and geology. Herein is 
also the proof that text-books are needed as a guide 
in nature's labyrinth. If the frequency and inti- 
macy of mutual relations are any proof of unity, the 
natural sciences are a unit and have a right to be 
called by one name, nature study. 

In the study of laws, life-histories, and life-groups, 
the causal relations in nature are found to be wonder- 
fully stimulating to those who have begun to trace 
them out. The child as well as the mature scientist 
finds in these causal connections materials of absorb- 
ing interest. 

It is plain, therefore, that the lines tending toward 
unity in nature study are numerous and strong, such 
as the scientific classifications of our text-books, the 
working out of general laws whether in biology or in 
physical science, the study of life-histories in vegeta- 
ble and animal, and the observation of life societies 
in the close mutual relations of the different parts or 
individuals. 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 6 1 

If a course of nature studies is begun in the first 
grade and carried systematically through all the years 
up to the eighth grade, is it not reasonable to suppose 
that real insight into nature, based on observation 
taken at first hand, may be reached ? It will involve 
a study of living plants and animals, minerals, physi- 
cal apparatus and devices, chemical experiments, the 
making of collections, regular excursions for the 
observation of the neighboring fields, forests, and 
streams, and the working over of these and other 
concrete experiences from all sources through skilful 
class teaching. 

The first great result to a child of such a series of 
studies is an intelligent and rational understanding of 
his home, the world, his natural environment. He 
will have a seeing eye and an appreciative mind for 
the thousand things surrounding his daily life, where 
the ignorant toiler sees but understands nothing. 

A second advantage which we can only hint at, 
while incidental, is almost equally important. We 
have been considering nature chiefly as a realm by 
itself, apart from men. But the utihties of natural 
science in individual life and in society are so manifold 
that we accept many of the finest products of skill 
and art as if they were natural products — as if gold 
coins, silk dresses, and fine pictures grew on the 
bushes and only waited to be picked. The thousand- 
fold applications of natural science to human industry 
and comfort deserve to be perceived as the result of 



62 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

labor and inventive skill. Our much lauded steam 
engines, telegraphs, microscopes, sewing machines, 
reapers, iron ships, and printing presses are examples, 
not of a few, but of myriads of things that natural 
science has secured. But how many children on 
leaving the common school understand the principle 
involved in any one of the machines mentioned, sub- 
jects of common talk as they are } As children leave 
the schools at fourteen or fifteen, they should know 
and appreciate many such things, wherein man, by 
his wit and ingenious use of nature's forces, has 
triumphed over difficulties. How are glass and soap 
made .-* What has a knowledge of natural science to 
do with the construction of stoves, furnaces, and 
lamps .'' How are iron, silver, and copper ore mined 
and reduced ? How is sugar obtained from maple 
trees, cane, and beet roots ? How does a suction 
pump work, and why ? Without a knowledge of such 
applications of natural science we should be thrown 
back into barbarism. These things also, since they 
form such an important part of every child's environ- 
ment, should be understood, but not simply for direct 
utility. 

Historically considered, the study of natural science 
is the study of man's long-continued struggle with 
nature and of his gradual triumph. It ends with in- 
sight into nature and into those contrivances of men 
by which her laws and forces are utilized. The whole 
subject of nature, her laws and powers, must not 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 63 

remain a sealed book to the masses of the people. 
Scientists, inventors, and scholars may lead the way, 
but they are only pioneers. The thousands of the 
children of the people are treading at their heels and 
must be initiated into the mysteries. 

Our knowledge of these principles and appliances 
constitute, in fact, a good share of the foundation upon 
which our whole culture status rests. Without nat- 
ural science we should understand neither nature nor 
society. Spencer, in " Education," pp. 44-54, shows 
the wide-reaching value of science knowledge in our 
modern life : — 

" For leaving out only some very small classes, 
what are all men employed in } They are employed 
in production, preparation, and distribution of com- 
modities. And on what does efficiency in the pro- 
duction, preparation, and distribution of commodities 
depend } It depends on the use of methods fitted to 
the respective nature of these commodities ; it depends 
on an adequate knowledge of their physical, chemical, 
or vital properties, as the case may be; that is, it 
depends on science. This order of knowledge, which 
is in great part ignored in our school courses, is the 
order of knowledge underlying the right performance 
of all those processes by which civilized life is made 
possible. Undeniable as is this truth, and thrust 
upon us as it is at every turn, there seems to be no 
living consciousness of it. Its very familiarity makes 
it unregarded. To give due weight to our argument, 



64 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 



^ 



we must therefore realize this truth to the reader by 
a rapid review of the facts." 

He then illustrates, in interesting detail, the varied 
applications of mathematics, physics, chemistry, 
biology, and social science to the industries and econ- 
omies of life, and concludes as follows : — 

" That which our school courses leave almost en- 
tirely out we thus find to be that which most nearly 
concerns the business of life. All our industries 
would cease, were it not for that information which 
men begin to acquire as they best may after their 
education is said to be finished. And were it not 
for this information that has been from age to age 
accumulated and spread by unofficial means, these 
industries would never have existed. Had there been 
no teaching but such as is given in our public schools, 
England would now be what it was in feudal times. 
That increasing acquaintance with the laws of na- 
ture which has through successive ages enabled us 
to subjugate nature to our needs, and in these days 
gives to the common laborer comforts which a few 
centuries ago kings could not purchase, is scarcely in 
any degree owed to the appointed means of instruct- 
ing our youth. The vital knowledge — that by which 
we have grown as a nation to what we are, and which 
now underlies our whole existence — is a knowledge 
that has got itself taught in nooks and corners, while 
the ordained agencies for teaching have been mum- 
bling little else but dead formulas." 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 65 

Not only the specialists in natural science, whose 
interest and enthusiasm are largely absorbed in these 
studies, but many other energetic teachers, are per- 
suaded that the culture value of nature studies is on 
a par with that of historical studies. But on account 
of the present lack of system and of clear purpose in 
natural science teachers, the first great problem in 
this field of common school effort is to select the 
material and perfect the method of studying nature 
with children. 

Our estimate of the value of natural science for 
culture and for discipline is confirmed by the opinion 
of educational reformers and by the changes and 
progress in schools. An inquiry into the history of 
education in Europe and in America since the Refor- 
mation will show that the movement toward nature 
study has been accumulating momentum for more 
than three hundred years. In spite of the failure of 
such men as Comenius, Ratich, Basedow, and Rous- 
seau to secure the introduction of these studies in a 
liberal degree, in spite of the enormous influence of 
custom and prejudice in favor of Latin and other 
traditional studies, the natural sciences have made 
recently such surprising advances, and have so pene- 
trated and transformed our modern life, that we are 
simply compelled, even in the common school, to take 
heed of these great living educational forces already 
at work. 

The universities of England and of the United 



66 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

States have been largely transformed within the last 
forty years by the introduction, on a grand scale, of 
modern studies, particularly of the natural sciences. 
The fitting schools, academies, and high schools have 
had no choice but to follow this lead. Since the 
forces that produced this result in higher education 
sprang up largely outside of our institutions of learn- 
ing, the movement is not likely to cease till the com- 
mon school has been changed in the same way. The 
educational question of the future is not whether 
historical or natural science or formal studies are to 
monopoHze the school course, but rather how these 
three indispensable elements of every child's educa- 
tion may be best harmonized and wrought into a 
unit. 

But the question that confronts us at every turn is, 
What is the disciplinary value of nature study } We 
know, say the opponents, what a vigorous training 
in languages and mathematics can do for a student. 
What results in this direction can the natural sciences 
tabulate ? The champions of natural science point 
with pride to the great men who have been trained 
and developed in such studies. For inductive think- 
ing the natural sciences offer the best materials. To 
cultivate self-reliance there is nothing like turning a 
student loose in nature under a skilled instructor. 
The spirit of investigation and of accurate thinking 
is claimed as a peculiar product of nature study. 
It is called, par excellence, "the scientific spirit." 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 67 

The undue reverence for authority produced by Hter- 
ary studies is not a weakness of natural science pur- 
suits. But intense interest and devotion are combined 
with scientific accuracy and fidelity to nature and her 
laws. 

We do not feel called upon to attempt a settlement 
of this dispute. We have already assumed that his- 
tory in the broad sense (including languages) and nat- 
ural science (or nature study) are the two great staples 
of the common school course, and that so far as dis- 
cipline is concerned one is as important as the other. 
But we believe that those educators whose first, 
middle, and last question is, " What is the discipHnary 
value of a study } " have mistaken the primary prob- 
lem of education. Just as in the proper training of 
the body, the strength and skill of a professional 
athlete are, in no sense, the true aim, but physical 
soundness, health, and vigor, so in mind culture, not 
extraordinary skill in mental gymnastics of the sever- 
est sort is the essential aim, but mental soundness, 
integrity, and motive. The underlying question in 
education is not. How strong or incisive is his mind } 
(this depends largely upon heredity and native en- 
dowment) but, What is its quality and its temper ? 
If might is right, then mental strength is to be gained 
at all hazards. But if right is higher than might, 
then mental skill and power are only secondary aims. 
So long as we are dealing with fundamental aims in 
such a serious business as education, why stop short 



68 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

of that ideal which is manifestly the best ? We have 
no controversy with the highest mental discipline and 
strength that are consistent with all-round mental 
soundness. Our better teachers are not lacking in 
appreciation for the value of what is called formal 
mental discipline, but they do generally lack faith in 
the innate power of the best studies to arouse interest 
and mental life. They emphasize the drill more than 
the content and inspiration of the author. Both in 
theory and in practice they are greatly lacking in the 
intellectual sympathy and moral power which result 
from bringing the minds of students into direct con- 
tact with the noblest products of God's work in his- 
tory and in the object world. Here we can put our 
finger on the radical weakness of our school work. 

The really soul-inspiring teachers have not been 
formalists nor drill-masters alone. Friedrich August 
Wolf, for example, the great German philologist, was 
probably the most inspiring teacher of classical lan- 
guages that Germany has had. But to what was his 
remarkable influence as a teacher of young men due ? 
We usually think of a philologist as one who digs 
among the roots of dead languages, who worships 
the forms of speech and the laws of grammar. 
Doubtless he and his pupils were much taken up 
with these things, but they were not the prime 
sources of his and their interest. Wolf defined phi- 
lology as "the knowledge of human nature as exhi- 
bited in antiquity." He studied with great avidity 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 69 

everything that could throw light upon the lives, char- 
acter, and language of the ancients, their biographies, 
histories, geography, climate, dress, implements, their 
sculpture, monuments, buildings, and tombs. Ap- 
proaching the literature and language of the Greeks 
with this abundant knowledge of their real surround- 
ings and conditions of life, he saw the deeper, fuller 
significance of every classical author, and the great 
literary masterpieces were perceived as the expression 
of the national life. He appreciated language as the 
wonderful medium through which the more wonder- 
ful'life of the versatile Greek expressed itself. The 
reason he was such a great philologist was because 
he was so great a realist, a man who was intensely 
interested in the Greek people, their history and life. 
Words alone had little charm for him. No great 
teacher has been simply a word-monger. 

For the present we leave the question of discipline 
unanswered, though we are disposed to think that 
those studies which introduce children to the two great 
fields of real knowledge, and which arouse a strong 
desire to solve the problems found there, will also 
furnish the most valuable discipline. 

The formal studies, such as reading, spelling, writ- 
ing, language, and much of arithmetic, have thus far 
appropriated the best share of school-time. They are 
the tools for acquiring and formulating knowledge 
rather than knowledge itself. They are so indispen- 
sable in life that people have acquired a sort of 



70 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

superstitious respect for them. They are generally 
considered as of primary importance while other 
things are taken as secondary. By virtue of this 
excessive estimation the formal studies have become 
so strongly intrenched in the practice of the schools 
that they are really a heavy obstacle to educational 
progress. They have been so long regarded as the 
only gateway to knowledge that any one who tries to 
climb in some other way is regarded as a thief and a 
robber. We forget that Homer's great poems were 
composed and preserved for centuries before letters 
were invented. 

As more thought is expended on studies ' and 
methods of learning, the more the thinkers are in- 
clined to exactly reverse the educational machinery. 
They say, " Thought studies must precede form 
studies." We should everywhere begin with valuable 
and interesting thought materials in history and 
natural science and let language, reading, spelling, 
and drawing follow. It is a thing much more easily 
said than done, but many active teachers are really 
doing it, and many others are wondering how it may 
be done. The advantage of putting the concrete 
reahties of thought before children at first is that 
they give a powerful impetus to mental life, while 
pure formal studies in most cases have a deadening 
effect and gradually put a child to sleep. One of 
the great problems of school work is how to get more 
interest and instructive thought into school exercises. 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 7 1 

This inversion of the old order so that the content 
studies are put foremost and the formal or symbolic 
studies into a secondary role, suggests that incidental 
acquisition of symbols which has been urged so much 
of late by progressive teachers. It is well known 
that children will greatly increase their mastery of a 
reading vocabulary by voluntarily reading stories or 
books which they enjoy. In such cases the children 
are not consciously trying to master the symbols and 
vocabularies ; but this result is attained incidentally, 
as a natural by-product of a healthy, energetic interest. 
This hint has led teachers throughout the grades to 
put more interesting and valuable reading matter, 
suited to the age, in each grade, so that children may 
master the formal difficulties with greater spontaneous 
energy and ease. The doctrine of incidental teach- 
ing has gained such foothold, that it has led, in some 
schools, to the extinction of certain studies, like lan- 
guage, drawing, and arithmetic, as independent studies 
in some of the grades. But this will be treated more 
fully under the subject " Correlation of Studies." 
^ We are now in a position to give a concluding esti- 
mate upon the relative value of these three elements 
in school education. History contributes the mate- 
rials from which motives and moral impulses spring. 
It cultivates and strengthens moral convictions by the 
use of inspiring examples. The character of each \ 
child should be drawn into harmony with the highest ^ 
impulses that men have felt. A desire to be the 



72 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

author of good to others should be developed into a 
practical ruling motive. Natural science, on the other 
hand, supplies a knowledge of the ordinary means 
and appHances by which the purposes of life are 
realized. It gives us proper insight into the con- 
ditions of life and puts us into intelligent relation to 
our environment. Not only must a child be supplied 
with the necessaries of life, but he must appreciate 
the needs of health and understand the economies of 
society, such as the necessity of mental and manual 
labor, the right use of the products and forces of 
nature, and the advantage of man's inventions and de- 
vices. In a plan of popular education these two culture 
elements should mingle (history and natural science). 
In the case of all sorts of people in society the ability 
to execute high moral purposes depends largely upon 
a ready, practical insight into natural conditions. We 
are not thinking of the bread-and-butter phase of life 
and of the aid afforded by the sciences in making 
a living, but of the all-round, practical utility of 
natural science as a necessary supplement to moral 
training. 

One of the best tests of a system of education is 
the preparation it gives for life in a liberal sense. 
When a child, leaving school behind, develops into a 
citizen, what tests are applied to him } The questions 
submitted to his judgment in his relations to the 
family and to society call for a quick and varied 
knowledge of men, insight into character, and for a 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 73 

large amount of practical information of natural 
science. He is asked to vote intelligently on social, 
political, sanitary, and economic questions; to judge 
of men's motives, opinions, and character ; to vote 
upon or perhaps direct the management of poor- 
houses, asylums, and penitentiaries ; in towns to decide 
questions of drainage, police, water supply, public 
health, and school administration ; to make contracts 
for public buildings and bridges ; to grant Hcenses and 
franchises; to serve on juries or as representatives of 
the people. These are not professional matters alone; 
they are the common duties of all citizens of a sound 
mind. These things each person should know how 
to judge, whether he be a blacksmith, a merchant, or 
a housekeeper. In all such matters he must be not 
only a judge of others but an actor under the guidance 
of right motives and information. Again, in the 
bringing up of children, in the domestic arrange- 
ments of every home, and in a proper care for the 
minds and bodies of both parents and children, 
a multitude of practical problems from each of the 
great fields of real knowledge must be met and 
solved. 

A medical missionary illustrates this combination 
of historical and natural science elements. rHis life 
purpose is drawn from history, from the " life of 
Christ, and from the traditional incentives of the 
Church. The means by which he is to make him- 
self practically felt are obtained from his study of 



74 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

medicine and from the sciences upon which it 
depends. These elements form the basis of his in- 
fluence. This illustration, however, savors of pro- 
fessional rather than of general education, and we 
are concerned only with the latter. But the edu- 
cation of every child is analogous to that of the 
medical missionary in its two constituent elements. 

As a matter of fact, neither history nor natural 
science occupies any such prominence in the school 
course as we have judged fitting. Much thoughtful 
study, experience in teaching, and pioneer labor in 
partially new fields will be necessary in order to 
bring into existence such a course of study based 
upon the best materials. Many teachers already 
recognize the necessity for it, and see before them 
a land of plenty as compared with the half-desert 
barrenness revealed in our present school course. 

Two powerful convictions in the minds of those 
responsible for education have contributed to pro- 
duce this desert-like condition in children's school 
employments, and this brings us to a discussion of 
the overestimation in which purely formal studies 
are held. The first article of faith rests upon the 
unshaken belief in the practical studies, — reading, 
writing, and arithmetic. They are still looked upon 
as a barrier that must be scaled before the real work 
of education can begin. Learn to read, write, and 
figure, and then the world of knowledge as well as of 
business is at your command. But many children 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 75 

find the barrier so difficult to scale that they really 
never get into the fields of knowledge. Many of our 
most thoroughgoing educators still firmly believe 
that a child cannot learn anything worth mention- 
ing till he has first learned to read. But however 
deeply rooted this confidence in the purely formal 
work of the early school years may be, it must break 
down as soon as means are devised for putting the 
realities of interesting knowledge before and under- 
neath all the forms of expression. Let the necessity 
for expression spring from the real objects of study. 
Those children to whom the memorizing and drill 
upon forms of expression become tedious, deserve 
our sympathy. There is a kind of knowledge 
adapted to arouse these dull ones to their full 
capacity of interest. " Or what man is there of 
you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a 
stone .•* " With many a child the first reader, the 
arithmetic, or the grammar becomes a veritable 
stone. There is no good reason why the sole bur- 
den of work in early school grades should rest upon 
the learning of the pure formalities of knowledge. 
Children's minds are not adapted to an exclusive 
diet of this kind. The fact that children have good 
memories is no reason why their minds should be 
gorged with the driest memory materials. They 
have a healthy interest in people, whether in life or 
in story, and in the objects in nature around them. 
What is thus preeminently true of the primary 



76 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

grades is true to a large extent throughout all the 
grades of the common school. It seems almost 
curious that the more tender the plants, the more 
barren and inhospitable the soil upon which they are 
expected to grow. Fortunately these little ones 
have such an exuberance of life that it is not easily 
quenched. Formal knowledge stands first in our 
common school course, and real studies are allowed 
to pick up such crumbs of comfort as may chance to 
fall. We believe in formal studies and in their 
complete mastery in the common school, but they 
should stand in the place of service to real studies. 
How powerful the tendency has been, and still is, 
toward pure formal drill and word-memory, is ap- 
parent from the fact that even geography and 
history, which are not at all formal studies, but full 
to overflowing with interesting facts and laws, have 
been reduced to a dry memorizing of words, phrases, 
and stereotyped sentences. 

It is not difficult to understand why the numerous 
body of teachers, who easily drift into mechanical 
methods, has a preference for formal studies. They 
are comparatively easy and humdrum and keep 
pupils busy. Real studies, if taught with any sort 
of fitness, require energy, interest, and versatility, 
besides much outside work in preparing material. 

The second article of faith is a still stronger one. 
The better class of energetic teachers would never 
have been won over to formal studies on purely 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 77 

utilitarian grounds. A second conviction weighs 
heavily in their minds. *'The discipline of the 
mental faculties" is a talisman of unusual potency 
with them. They prize arithmetic and grammar 
more for this than for any direct practical value. 
The idea of mental discipline, of training the 
faculties, is so grained into all our educational 
thinking that it crops out in a hundred ways and 
holds our courses of study in the beaten track of 
formal training with a steadiness that is astonishing. 
These friends believe that we are taking the back- 
bone out of education by making it interesting. The 
culmination of this educational doctrine is reached 
when it is said that the most valuable thing learned 
in school or out of it, is to do and do vigorously that 
which is most disagreeable. The training of the 
will to meet difficulties unflinchingly is their aim, 
and it is a laudable one. These stalwart apostles of 
educational hardship and difficulty are in constant 
fear lest we shall make studies interesting and at- 
tractive and thus undermine the energy of the will. 
But the question at once arises : Does not the will 
always act from motives of some sort ? And is 
there any motive or incentive so stimulating to the 
will as a steady and constantly increasing interest in 
studies ? It is able to meet and to surmount great 
difficulties. 

We wish to assure our stalwart friends that we 
still adhere to the good old doctrine that " There is no 



78 



THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 



royal road to learning." There is no way of putting 
aside the real difficulties that are found in every 
study, no way of grading up the valleys and tunnel- 
ling through the hills so as to get the even monotony 
of a railroad track through the rough or mountainous 
parts of education. Every child must meet and 
master the difficulties of learning for himself. There 
are no palace cars with reclining chairs to carry him 
to the summit of real difficulties. The character- 
developing power that lies in the mastery of hard 
tasks constitutes one of their chief merits. Accept- 
ing this as a fundamental truth in education, the 
problem for our solution is, how to stimulate children 
to encounter difficulties. Many children have little 
inclination to sacrifice their ease to the cause of 
learning, and our dull methods of teaching confirm 
them in their indifference to educational incentives. 
Any child who, like Hugh Miller or Abraham 
Lincoln, already possesses an insatiable thirst for 
knowledge will allow no difficulties or hardships to 
stand in the way of progress. This original appetite 
and thirst for knowledge which the select few have 
often manifested in childhood, is more valuable than 
anything the schools can give. With the majority of 
children we can certainly do nothing better than to 
nurture such a taste for knowledge into vigorous life. 
It will not do to assume that the average of children 
have any such original energy or momentum to lead 
them to scale the heights of even ordinary knowledge. 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 79 

Nor will it do to rely too much upon a forcing pro- 
cess, that is, by means of threats, severity, and disci- 
pline, to carry children against their will toward the 
educational goal. 

" Be not like dumb driven cattle, 
Be a hero in the strife," 

is sound educational doctrine. 

The thing for teachers to do is to cultivate in chil- 
dren all healthy appetites for knowledge, to set up 
interesting aims and desires at every step, to lead the 
approach to different fields of knowledge in the spirit 
of conquest. 

In the business world and in professional life men 
and women work with abundant energy and will, be- 
cause they have desirable ends in view. The hire- 
ling knows no such generous stimulus. Business 
life is full of irksome and difficult tasks, but the aim 
in view carries people through them. We shall not 
eliminate the disagreeable and irksome from school 
tasks, but try to create in children such a spirit and 
ambition as will lead to greater exertions. To im- 
plant vigorous aims and incentives in children is the 
great privilege of the teacher. We shall some day 
learn that when a boy cracks a nut he does so be- 
cause there may be a kernel in it, not because the 
shell is hard. 

There are two important elements of culture, 
which have been working their way into our schools 



80 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

in recent years, suggested by the terms ** manual 
training " and " art studies." They have brought us 
to the point where we can see two comprehensive and 
difficult problems, toward the solution of which only 
the beginnings have been made in the common school. 
Manual training has come to include not only the 
shop work, but all forms of industrial effort, the mak- 
ing, moulding, and construction exercises of primary 
children, domestic science, and the fashioning of 
materials into useful constructions in geography, 
history, and physical science. This notion of giving 
scope to the motor and constructive activities of chil- 
dren has far outrun the original meaning of manual 
training. It has developed into the conception of 
reorganizing the school course around the spontane- 
ous activities of children, and of turning these activi- 
ties into social and industrial channels. 

From the high school, manual training is filtering 
down into grammar and intermediate grades, and 
from the kindergarten the games and occupations 
have ascended into primary rooms, so that manual 
training or constructive work is present in some form 
in all the grades. There naturally rises the difficult 
problem for the school, how to arrange these miscel- 
laneous activities into a connected and consistent 
series throughout the school course. But this is a 
very superficial way of stating the problem. The 
growing conception of the educational importance of 
the outgoing energies of children threatens to trans- 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 8 1 

fer the centre of gravity from the present studies 
to the child, and to demand a reorganization of 
educative materials and activities around this new 
centre. 

This step seems to be the final one in a long series 
of historical changes in education. Three hundred 
years ago an almost pure verbalism prevailed in 
the schools, with no regard for children. Comenius 
found that pictures were the best available means, at 
that time, for putting more of realism into Latin 
forms. With Basedow and Pestalozzi there was a 
further step toward realism in object lessons as a 
means of interesting the child and of concreting his 
ideas. In the nineteenth century the schools passed on 
from the mere observation of objects to a handling and 
working with objects, and even to their construction 
in manual training. Now at last we are summoned 
by some of our foremost thinkers to make the final 
leap away from verbalism, even beyond manual train- 
ing as an instrument of culture, into the spontaneous 
energies and impulses of the child. Henceforth, we 
are to survey the studies from the standpoint of the 
child and his impulses, and no longer behold the 
child, at a distance, from the standpoint of the stud- 
ies. What the outcome will be is difficult to tell. 
Whether the child can hold his own against the 
world, and keep the education on his side or not, is 
the problem. 

The child, we say, must be educated for society, 



82 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD ^ 

but Colonel Parker lived long enough to convince us 
that the world must bow before the child. 

We are forced to believe that the child, as the prod- 
uct of the race development up to the present, by 
the growth of his inherited spontaneous energies, is 
capable of appropriating the best culture materials of 
the race from which he springs, and of the society 
into which he is born. In other words, society with 
its external demands can be brought into harmony 
with the child and his internal needs. Confidence 
in this outcome is based upon a belief in the inborn 
kinship between the child and society. 

The value of art studies, including music, drawing, 
painting, sculpture, architecture, and literature, is ob- 
taining more and more recognition. Not that our 
school programme is to be loaded with additional art 
studies, but the artistic sense, the appreciation of the 
forms of art, and the enrichment of school topics in 
all studies by seeing them from the artist's point of 
view, will follow. 

Just as the best elements of history, science, and 
literature are being slowly selected, as to their fitness, 
and incorporated into the school course, so the artis- 
tic products of the best art periods of the world are 
being selected and brought to the attention of teach- 
ers and gradually absorbed into the life of the school. 
This has scarcely begun, as yet, in most of our schools, 
but it is easy to see how important and far-reaching 
will be the results. The cultivation of these aesthetic 



RELATIVE VALUE OF STUDIES 83 

interests in all the great studies of the school will 
lend a deeper and more permanent enthusiasm to 
education. 

The adjustment of manual training and art studies 
to the other studies will be discussed in the chapter 
on concentration. 

Summary. — History, in the liberal sense, surveys 
the field of human life in all its typical forms and 
furnishes the best illustrative moral materials. Na- 
ture study opens the door to the real world in all its 
beauty, variety, and law. The formal studies consti- 
tute an indispensable part of useful and disciplinary 
knowledge, but they should occupy a secondary place 
in courses of study because they deal with the form 
rather than with the content of the sciences. It is a 
fundamental error to place formal studies in the cen- 
tre of the school course and to subordinate everything 
to their mastery. History and natural science, on 
the contrary, having the richest knowledge content, 
constitute a natural centre for all educative efforts. 
They make possible a strong development of will 
energy, because their interesting materials furnish 
strong and legitimate incentives to mental activity 
and an enlarged field and opportunity to voluntary 
effort in pursuit of clear and attractive aims. 



I 



CHAPTER III 



INTEREST 



The girl intent upon the story of Cinderella, the 
college youth watching a game of foot-ball, the chil- 
dren at home listening at the mother's knee to the 
adventures of Jack chmbing the bean-stalk, the boy 
pulling in a good-sized bass or pickerel with hook 
and Hue, the little girl dressing her doll and prepar- 
ing for a miniature tea party, the boy with his tools 
making a pair of bob-sleds, or coasting upon them 
down the long hill with his companions, — all these 
are illustrations of what all of us would call hearty, 
healthy interest and activity. The boy scov/ling over 
an opaque problem in arithmetic, the college youth 
burning his trigonometry and burying its remains, 
the girl, with unconcealed disgust, impatiently shut- 
ting her book at participles and their uses, the child 
in tears and distress over a composition, the boys 
bursting forth from the schoolhouse with shouts of 
joy at their release from purgatory, — these give us 
the other side of the picture. 

This contrast represents perhaps the traditional 

view of the difference between the boy, " creeping 

like snail unwiUingly to school," and the boy in his 

84 



INTEREST 85 

native element, full of the energy of play or of self- 
chosen activity. 

The principle of interest, now so much agitated as 
appropriate to studies, is designed to lay hold of this 
pleasurable activity for the school. 

By interest, as commonly understood, we mean the 
natural bent or incHnation of the mind to find satis- 
faction in a subject when it is properly presented. 
It is the natural attractiveness of the object of 
thought that holds the attention. A proper interest 
in the subject leads to a quiet, steady absorption of 
the mind in it, but it keeps the attention active and 
alert without undue excitement or partiality. 

Interest is commonly spoken of by psychologists 
as a form of feeling, and belongs therefore to the 
emotional rather than to the intellectual life. It is 
distinguished from the other feelings, such as desire 
or longing or love, by being less passionate and in- 
tense. Interest may be thought also as less fluctuat- 
ing and unsteady than more passionate feelings. At 
any rate, it is often satisfied with the simple study 
and contemplation without asking for possession. 

Interest also contains the elements of ease, pleas- 
ure, and needed employment. That is, in learning 
something that awakens a proper interest there is 
greater ease and pleasure in the acquisition, and 
occupation with the object satisfies an inner need. 
Ziller says : *' When interest has been properly devel- 
oped it must always combine pleasure, facility, and 



S6 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

the satisfaction of a need. We see again that in all 
exertions, power and pleasure are secured to interest. 
It does not feel the burden of difficulties, but often 
seems to sport with them." 

One of the best writers on this topic, Ostermann, 
defines interest as a feeling of value, a sense or 
estimation of the worth of the knowledge gained. 

" Upon a closer examination of the psychical pro- 
cess which underlies interest, it can be seen clearly 
that all valuation is originally a matter of feeling. 
iFeeling is the faculty of valuation in the mind. 
Without feeling there is no consciousness of value. 
However much our opinions may differ as to the 
nature of feeling, in this point all will agree, that our 
mind, in every state of pleasure, experiences, or at 
least thinks that it experiences, some satisfactory 
advancement ; in every state of pain some hindrance ; 
and that it is unable to become conscious of these 
advancements or hindrances, as such, in any other 
way than through feeling. For no reason can be 
found why impressions should appear to the mind as 
valuable or as worthless, other than that they afford 
pleasure or pain. The mind experiences through 
them an advancement or a hindrance of its life." 

In our eager pursuit of intellectual training and 
knowledge we sometimes forget that the interests 
or sensibilities awakened by knowledge are what give 
it personal significance to us. So long as a child has 
acquired no interest in history, he is like a stranger in 



INTEREST S7 

a foreign land, no matter how many of its facts he 
has memorized. He is disposed to wonder what it is 
all for. It has no meaning for his life, but his faith 
in it depends upon the judgment of others, imposed 
upon him ; that is, upon authority. But when his 
interest is once awakened in a subject, he feels its 
value and its relation to his needs. Without this 
judgment of value springing from his own perception 
of worth, he is almost certain to regard knowledge as 
an imposition, an impertinence, an intrusion. 

This feeling of value is not utilitarian in any narrow 
senSe, if in any sense at all. It appears in all the 
judgments which estimate worth — practical, moral, 
aesthetic, and ideal. It includes the whole range of 
values. This consideration of feeling, as judgment 
of value, suggests the close intimacy that should 
always exist between intellect and feeling. 

The interest we have in mind is intrinsic, native to 
the subject, and springs up naturally when the mind 
is brought face to face with something attractive. It 
is natural, genuine, and spontaneous, not a forced, 
extraneous, or artificial phase of mental action. The 
things of sense in nature, and the people whom we 
see and read about, have a perennial and inexhausti- 
ble interest for us all. This interest may be attrac- 
tive or repellent. It is among these objects that 
poets and artists find their material and inspiration. 
For the same reason the pictures drawn by the artist 
or poet have a charm that does not pass away. They 



88 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

select something concrete and individual ; they clothe 
it with beauty and attractiveness ; they give it some 
inherent quality that appeals to our admiration an^ 
love. It may call forth some aesthetic or moral judg- 
ment by virtue of its natural quality. Like luscious 
grapes, the objects presented to the thoughts of chil- 
dren may have an unquestioned quality that is 
desirable. 

There are also bad interests which should be in 
some way avoided or neutralized. Parallel with those 
legitimate and worthy interests which run through 
all the plays, and studies, and life experiences, is a 
series of vicious interests, just as strong and influential 
if allowed to develop. Parallel with the home is the 
street life; parallel with the better companionships 
run the worse ; and any one acquainted with school 
truants knows how strong are the interests centring 
in the truant life. Parallel with good books are the 
poor and the vicious, and so throughout the child's 
life. When we speak, therefore, of cultivating strong 
interests in children, we limit ourselves to those 
interests which conduce to the well-being of the chil- 
dren and of society. 

It is customary also to speak of direct and indirect 
interest ; by the former being meant the real thing, 
by the latter, a reflection or borrowed light. Direct 
interest is felt in the thing itself for its own sake, 
and indirect interest points to something else as the 
real source. A miser loves gold coins for their own 



INTEREST 



89 



sake, but most people love them only because of the 
things for which they may be exchanged. The poet 
loves the beauty and fragrance of flowers. The florist 
adds to this a mercenary interest. A snow shovel 
may have, ordinarily, no interest for us, but just when 
it is needed on a winter morning it is an object of 
much value. It is simply a means to an end, not a 
thing that excites interest for its own sake. This in- 
direct interest may spring, not out of the object, but 
from some desire. A desire to restore one's health 
will produce a great interest in a health resort, Uke 
the Hot Springs, or in some method of treatment, or 
a vegetarian diet. The desire for wealth and busi- 
ness success will lead a merchant in the fur trade to 
take an interest in seals and seal fishing, in beavers 
and traps, — things which in themselves, perhaps, have 
never awakened his interest. The desire to gain a 
prize will cause a child to take a deep interest in 
lessons. But in all these cases the desire for some- 
thing else precedes this so-called interest. Interest, 
indeed, in the thing itself, for its own sake, fre- 
quently is not present, or, if present at all, is merely 
borrowed from another source. The cultivation of 
such indirect or borrowed interests may be primarily 
the strengthening of certain inordinate desires or 
feelings, such as rivalry, pride, jealousy, ambition, 
reputation, self-love, and even much worse things. 
By appealing to the selfish pride and rivalry among 
children in getting lessons, hateful moral qualities 



90 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

may be startled into a rank growth in the very 
laudable effort to secure the highest intellectual 
results and discipline. Giving a prize for superiority 
often produces jealousy, unkindness, and deep-seated 
ill-will. These indirect interests, therefore, while 
they produce great energy of intellectual effort, may 
be sharply scrutinized by the teacher. They often- 
times serve as a blind to conceal most hateful qualities 
in the development of character. There are strong 
reasons which prompt us to think that most teachers, 
and even writers on education, have had chiefly these 
indirect interests in mind, and have, therefore, largely 
missed the whole significance of true interest as a 
factor in education. 

There is, however, an important phase of all studies 
and exertions in which these indirect interests are 
vital to success, namely, when they follow in the 
path of strong and genuine interests. The interest 
a boy has in making a telephone transfers itself to 
all the batteries, wires, and difficulties met with in 
setting up a successful telephone. In all kinds of 
manual training where children make a sled, or book- 
case, or trap, in which they are personally concerned, 
the interest transfers itself to the materials, problems, 
and irksome difficulties incident to a successful work- 
ing out of the whole scheme. A boy reading Dana's 
"Two Years before the Mast" took great pains to 
study out in the appendix to Webster's Dictionary all 
the parts of a ship and the common nautical terms of 



INTEREST 



91 



the sailors. So strong was the interest in the story 
itself as to lead to the mastery of these otherwise un- 
interesting details. 

There are many facts in each branch of study 
which, in themselves, excite little or no interest, just 
as there are many details in a man's business which, 
in themselves, are only tedious. All of these facts 
may acquire a secondary interest by close association 
with interesting things with which they are brought 
into relation. A railroad time-table, wholly dull in 
itself, as John Adams says, becomes very interesting 
to one about to take a long journey. William James 
says: "Any object not interesting in itself may be- 
come interesting through becoming associated with 
an object in which an interest already exists.; ' The 
two associated objects grow, as it were, together : 
the interesting portion sheds its quality over the 
whole, and thus things not interesting in their own 
right borrow an interest which becomes as real and 
as strong as that of any natively interesting thing." 
For example, a man who has just purchased an 
orange grove in Florida becomes suddenly interested 
in the climate, soil, labor system, shipping facilities, 
and markets, things which, perhaps, were previously 
of little or no concern to him. In studying the story 
of Major Powell's descent of the Grand Canon of the 
Colorado, the child becomes interested in the moun- 
tains and in the upper course of the river where the 
men first launched their boats on their dangerous 



92 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

journey. Before it was associated with this daring 
adventure, he had no interest in the upper Colorado. 
James says : ** In mature life all .the drudgery of a 
man's business or profession, intolerable in itself, is 
shot through with engrossing significance because he 
knows it to be associated with his personal fortunes." 
This indirect interest must, of course, play a very 
important part in all studies. Every study, however, 
should possess sufficient centres of interest around 
which these less attractive parts may be organized. 
To make a study consist wholly of this kind of life- 
less material, would certainly make Jack a dull boy. 

We should, however, discriminate sharply between 
this form of associate interests, and the fictitious in- 
terests produced by sugar-coating disagreeable tasks, 
by artificially amusing and entertaining the children. 
\ The kind of interest which we think is so valuable 
for instruction is direct and intrinsic. It reaches 
down into those spontaneous and instinctive forces 
in child-life out of which all strong activity must 
spring. The story of Robinson Crusoe, for example, 
is planted down deep in these original impulses of 
childhood from which the current of efficient effort 
may be led off in many directions. Such a story is 
like the mountain reservoir on the upper course of an 
irrigating stream. In the season of cultivation its 
waters may be tapped, and many an arid field in the 
plains below made to rejoice with its refreshing waters. 
A boy or girl may read page after page of ** Alad- 



INTEREST 



93 



din " or " Rip Van Winkle " while he will be dragged 
with slow and reluctant steps through an easier third 
reader or formal exercise-book. With children in 
the upper grammar grades or high school, the auto- 
biography of Benjamin Franklin calls out a strong 
natural interest in the man and his fortunes, and 
opens up a great variety of instructive topics. Many 
people also in adult life will find it a remarkable 
stimulus to thought along many lines. A humming- 
bird or butterfly attract and appeal to us by their 
delicate beauty, and with a closer study reveal strik- 
ing adaptations in nature. The cultivation of these 
direct interests in all valuable kinds of knowledge is 
the thing which has given deeper significance to the 
doctrine of interest. In all these cases the sources of 
all true interest are the chief things to be considered 
by the teacher, because they contain the motives 
which prompt to exertion. 

Perhaps the chief source of misunderstanding and 
controversy in the whole discussion of interest is 
brought to light by the expression, ** Making things 
interesting to children." This expression suggests a 
wholly erroneous point of view as to what is meant 
by true interest. No one^ would speak of trying to 
make sugar sweet. It is equally absurd to talk of 
making instruction interesting, although this is not 
quite so apparent. In the deeper sense, instruction 
should be interesting before the teacher lays his 
hands upon it. A ten-year-old boy does not need to 



94 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

have "Robinson Crusoe" made interesting. Give him 
the book and he and Crusoe will get along together 
without weariness. We do not say that all school 
work is so entrancing, but a very large part of what 
we are now teaching in the schools contains this ele- 
ment of real interest which does not have to be sugar- 
coated. Adams says: ("Teachers are fond of talking 
about creating an interest, but this labor at least is 
spared them. They have not to create but only to 
direct interest.": , If interest consists chiefly in artifi- 
cial devices for overcoming the dulness of studies, 
in perpetual efforts to make lessons easy and enter- 
taining, the opponents of this theory are well justi- 
fied. In characterizing the opponents of interest, 
John Dewey gives their point of view as follows : — 

" Apart from the question of the future, continually 
to appeal even in childhood days to the principle of 
interest is eternally to excite, that is, distract, the 
child. Continuity of activity is destroyed. Every- 
thing is made play, amusement. This means over- 
stimulation ; it means dissipation of energy. Will is 
never called into action at all. The rehance is upon 
external attractions and amusements. Everything is 
sugar-coated for the child, and he soon learns to turn 
from everything which is not artificially surrounded 
with diverting circumstances. The spoiled child who 
does only what he likes is the inevitable outcome of 
the theory of interest in education. 

" The theory is intellectually as well as morally 



INTEREST 95 

harmful. Attention is never directed to the essential 
and important facts. It is directed simply to the 
wrappings of attraction with which the facts are sur- 
rounded. If a fact is repulsive or uninteresting, it 
has to be faced in its own naked character sooner or 
later. Putting a fringe of fictitious interest around it 
does not bring the child any nearer to it than he was 
at the outset." 

This point of view assumes that interest is really a 
fictitious thing ; that it does not reach down into the 
inner substance and quality of the object studied. In 
fact the use of the word fictitious implies that the 
whole thing is a fraud, that real genuine interest in a 
subject of study is an unheard-of thing. 
^ We often say that it is necessary to make a subject 
interesting so that it may be more palatable, more 
easily learned. This is the commonly accepted idea. 
It is a means of helping us to swallow a distasteful 
medicine, to cover up the real bitterness of the dose 
which is to do us good. There is a certain trickiness 
and deceit in this kind of an interest, and the child, 
as soon as he is able to reflect upon it, perceives that 
he has been fooled. We may call this a pseudo or 
false interest, interest so called, which needs to be 
excluded from the category of real interests. When 
we speak of teachers making a disagreeable lesson 
interesting, we are playing a game of jugglery. We 
are thinking of the devices by which the teacher con- 
ceals the emptiness and barrenness of the subject. 



96 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 



1 



It is a kind of mockery to talk of interest in such 
cases. ]' True interest corresponds exactly to the 
hearty appetite of a healthy child for wholesome food. 
It is awakened by the inherent quality of the subject 
and not by a thin whitewash of agreeable devices. 
If the main purpose of education were to get knowl- 
edge into the mind, and if knowledge, like medicine, 
had no relish for the young, educators, like physi- 
cians, might be justified in resorting to this device; 
but interest is one of the leading qualities which we 
wish to see permanently associated with knowledge, 
even after it is safely stored in the mind. If interest 
is there, future energy and activity will spring spon- 
taneously out of the acquirements. The interest that 
is awakened in a subject because of its innate attrac- 
tiveness, leaves those incentives which will ripen 
sooner or later into action. This kind of interest is 
direct, intrinsic, not simply receptive, but active and 
progressive. It is life-giving and is prompted by the 
objects themselves, just as the interest of boys is 
awakened by deeds of adventure and daring or by a 
journey into the woods. 

It is inevitable that a teacher having this false 
notion of interest, that it consists not in bringing out 
the inner qualities of the subject, but is spicing and 
sugar-coating, in fun and jokes, and entertaining by- 
play, — it is inevitable, we say, that such a teacher 
will spoil the children with sweetmeats and herself 
fall a prey to unworthy motives and trivial devices. 



INTEREST 97 

It is not the purpose of such a serious thing as edu- 
cation to run the good ship aground upon the shoals 
of such shallow nonsense. 

, An equally serious blunder is made by us when we 
i/^ssume that it is our business to make instruction easy. 
I /it might better be said that it is the peculiar business 
of the teacher to make instruction difficult. Rous- 
seau said that he wished some one would invent a 
method by which the process of learning might be 
made difficult, and practically it is true that teachers 
help the children too much. Unquestionably the 
greatest interest which children can feel in their 
studies is found when they shoulder their own tasks 
manfully and work their way through their own diffi- 
culties with the least amount of help. Self-activity is* 
the fundamental basis of a strong interest. It should 
[ inot be forgotten, however, that this implies aims 
t Iwhich the children themselves are working out. Par- 
ents are often astonished at the amount of drudgery 
and hard work which children will encounter in carry- 
ing out some project which they themselves have 
conceived, of building a tree-house, or making a cave, 
or fixing up a play-ground. In practical life every- 
where men will work their way through endless drudg- 
ery in order to achieve results which they have set 
up as desirable. If this kind of energy could be let 
loose in school studies, it would save the teacher a 
good deal of anxiety. We are well aware that boys 
and girls possess superabundant energy. The prob- 

H 



98 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

lem is how to release this energy along school lines. 
Many teachers make the fatal mistake of thinking 
that they must make the lessons easy and interesting. 
The result is a pitiful feebleness, flabbiness, and help- 
lessness on the part of good stout boys and girls who 
are fully capable of doing problems twice as difficult. 
If necessary with these pampered youngsters, I would 
sacrifice something even of the principle of interest 
for the sake of bringing them up squarely against 
real difficulties, so as to convince them that the school 
is not the place to be helped into helplessness. This 
is a most serious problem for the majority of our 
teachers. They should resort to no end of devices to 
keep from helping the children and to teach them to 
rely upon themselves. A^y ^^^ ^^o supposes that 
he is increasing the interest of children in their 
school work by directly helping them over all their 
hard places, does not understand human nature in 
children. When they are interested in anything, they 
want to be left alone to work it out for themselves. 
It is only when they have been injudiciously helped, 
and have been dulled by lifeless instruction, that they 
lose interest and fall down in despair before every 
molehill. Of course there is another side to this 
question. It is the special business of the teacher to 
set up interesting problems demanding the strongest 
effort, and to see that the children are in possession 
of the essential facts and conditions which make it 
possible to reach a solution. In these preliminaries 



INTEREST 99 

the teacher can put in his work to the greatest ad- 
vantage, but when he has the children started in the 
right direction under right conditions, let him keep 
his hands off. The fact is the children will resent 
his interference, and his injudicious desire to help. 
It would not be difficult to multiply illustrations from 
every study showing that whenever children are once 
well interested in a problem they wish to be let alone 
to work it out for themselves. If it be a boy work- 
ing at a difficult problem in percentage, or making a 
sled in the manual training, when he gets well started 
he desires nothing better than freedom and autonomy 
in his work. Perhaps the greatest opening toward 
better methods of instruction is in the direction of 
laying out in every subject the series of interesting 
problems, in proper order and relation, which boys 
and girls may then be led to encounter. 
^ vThere is, then, a true philosophy in saying that the 
\^ way to make things interesting to boys and girls is 
to make them difficult. What interest would there 
be in base-ball if it did not put the players under the 
necessity of exhibiting the greatest endurance, skill, 
and self-control ? 

The true doctrine of interest, therefore, has noth- 
ing in common with that idea of spicing the subjects 
so as to make them artificially interesting, nor with 
the other idea of making school work easy, lacka- 
daisical, and fierveless. It is now generally felt 
among thoughtful teachers that the school has a 

LcFC. 



100 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

greatly increased responsibility for a rigorous train- 
ing in mastering difficulties. When most of the boys 
were brought up on farms they got this training at 
home, whether or not they did in school, but now in 
our towns and cities the only place where a great 
many boys and girls can be brought under severe 
discipline is the school, and interest in overcoming 
difficulties should be one of the chief agencies. 

There is one other characteristic of true interest 
which we have reserved for special emphasis. The 
kind of interest which is most worth awakening in 
pupils is not only direct and intrinsic, but permanent. 
The best kind of knowledge is that which lays a per- 
manent hold upon the affections. The best method of 
learning is that which opens up any field of study with 
a growing interest. The reason why in so many 
schools we are using such biographical stories in the 
early history work as the life of William Penn, of 
Columbus, of LaSalle, and of George Rogers Clark is 
that they are adapted to children of this age to arouse 
a strong and growing interest in American history. 
It is hoped that this will be intensified by later studies. 
Hawthorne's story of the " Golden Touch " embodies 
a simple classic truth in such transparent beauty that 
its reperusal is always a pleasure. In the same way 
a little child that has once observed the autumn 
woods and flowers, the birds and insects, with sym- 
pathy and delight, has laid in his memory the basis 
of a lasting pleasure which he may deepen and ex- 



INTEREST lOI 

tend in all his future experience. To awaken a 
child's growing interest in any branch of knowledge 
is to accomplish much for his character and useful- 
ness. An enduring interest in American history, 
for example, is valuable in the best sense, no matter 
what the method of instruction. Any companion or 
book that teaches us to observe the birds with grow- 
ing interest and pleasure, has done what a teacher 
could scarcely do better. This kind of knowledge 
becomes a living generative culture influence. Knowl- 
edge which contains no springs of interest is dead, like 
faith divorced from works. Information and disci- 
pline may be gained in education without any lasting 
interest, but it is at the sacrifice of the better part. 
The one who uses such knowledge and discipline is 
only a machine. A Cambridge student, who had 
taken the best prizes and scholarships, said at the 
end of his university career : " I am at a loss to know 
what to do. I have already gained the best distinc- 
tions, and I can see but little to work for in the future." 
The child of four years who opens his eyes with 
unfeigned interest and surprised inquiry into the big 
world around him, has a better spirit than such a 
dead product of university training. But happily 
this is not the present spirit of our universities. The 
remarkable and characteristic idea in university life 
to-day is the spirit of investigation and scientific 
inquiry which it constantly awakens. We happen 
to live in a time when university teachers are trying 



102 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

to enlarge the bounds of human knowledge in every 
direction, to solve problems that have not been solved 
before. No matter what the subject, the real student 
soon becomes an explorer, an investigator, in fields 
of absorbing interest. The common school can 
scarcely do better than to receive this generous im- 
pulse into its work. Can our common studies be 
approached in this inquisitive spirit ? Can growth in 
knowledge be made a progressive investigation ? A 
true interest takes pleasure in acquired knowledge, 
and standing upon this vantage looks with inquiring 
purpose into new worlds. Children in our schools 
are sometimes made so dyspeptic that no knowledge 
has any relish. But the soul should grow strong, 
and healthy, and elastic upon the food it takes. If 
the teaching is such that the appetite becomes 
stronger, the mental digestion better, and if the 
spirit of interest and inquiry grows into a steady 
force, the best results may be expected. 

It is pretty generally agreed to by thoughtful edu- 
cators that in giving a child the broad foundations 
of education we should especially deepen the suscep- 
tibility and appreciation for it, that is, the feeling 
of the worth or power or beauty of knowledge. A 
universal receptivity, such as Rousseau requires of 
Emile, is a desideratum. Scarcely a better dowry 
can be bestowed upon a child through education than 
a desire for knowledge and an intelligent interest ini 
all important branches of study. Herbart's many-^^ 



INTEREST 103 

sided interest is to strengthen and branch out from 
year to year during school life and become a per- 
manent tendency or force in later years. No school 
can give even an approach to full and encyclopaedic 
knowledge, but no school is so humble that it may 
not throw open the doors and present many a pleas- 
ing prospect into the fields of learning. 

The problem before us is to find out the place 
of this genuine form of interest in a scheme of 
training. In recent years the doctrine of interest 
and its importance to children and teachers have 
been thrust upon the attention of all those concerned 
with education by a variety of important agencies. 
The scientific thinkers and leaders of the modern 
world, such as Huxley, Youmans, Agassiz, Tyndall, 
and others, followed by the whole host of scientific 
investigators and teachers, have demanded that the 
dull routine of formal and disciplinary studies in 
language, mathematics, spelling, and geography 
shall give place, in a large measure, to those inter- 
esting observations of plant and animal life, to simple 
experiments in physics and chemistry, to those excur- 
sions for the study of soil, rocks, clouds, and the nat- 
ural phenomena of the seasons, winds, and the open 
sky, which appeal so powerfully to all children. The 
great scientific writers have spoken in no uncertain 
tones of the original power and educative influence 
of natural science phenomena, based upon the 
spontaneous and healthy interests of childhood. 



104 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

Eminent writers on education like Comenius, 

Rousseau, Montaigne, Froebel, Milton, and Locke 

have scourged the dull routine of the school, and 

have demanded more interesting and life-giving 

materials of study. Philosophers like Herbart, Mill, 

Spencer, and Lotze have set forth in the strongest 

\ terms the value of this appeal to the emotional 

\ nature. NoveHsts like Dickens and George Eliot 

^'have criticised and caricatured the formal pedantry 

of the schoolmaster. 

The enrichment of the school course with modern 
history, biography, literature, geography, natural 
science, and constructive work has brought a great 
quantity of lively instruction into common use. 

A great many teachers also in primary and other 
grades have felt keenly the hopeless dulness and 
irksome drills of the old-fashioned schools. In con- 
sequence, they have searched out in story, in litera- 
ture, and in nature study varied and abundant 
sources of natural interest, and have made large 
and successful use of these materials. 

The school of Herbart and his successors went so 
far as to set up the doctrine of interest as a cardinal 
principle of good educative work, and laid out careful 
courses of study, giving scope to this doctrine. 

As in the case of every new emphasis of an old 
principle, many teachers have seized upon it with 
avidity, and have committed no end of serious 
blunders in applying it to school studies. The 



INTEREST 



105 



disciplinary schoolmasters, and those who hold with 
them, have felt that a weak and sugary principle has 
been substituted for a strong and virile one in educa- 
tion. But not only the schoolmasters, in attempting 
to shield their practice, have set up the idea of 
discipline and rigor as opposed to interest and 
amusement; even eminent writers have sounded the H 
alarm against the effeminate and enervating doctrine 
of interest. 

The problem therefore which lies before us is to 
study out the real sources of children's interests 
and the true relation of the principle of interest 
to those long-recogni2^ed and well-established canons 
suggested by the familiar terms, acquisition of knowl- 
edge, intellectual discipline, attention, memory, imagi- 
nation, development of will power, and growth in 
moral character. It may be necessary also to enter 
into some sort of friendly relations with those new 
arrivals on the educational camping ground, apper- 
ception and correlation. It is suggestive to note 
that in the whole catalogue of ideas which ancient 
and modern pedagogy have brought to the attention 
of teachers, the doctrine of interest is the only one 
which gives special emphasis to the emotional life. 
The older pedagogy gives a large place and impor- 
tance to the intellect and the will, but the value of 
the feelings, of the emotional life, to the training 
of the child, has been admitted very slowly and 
grudgingly. 



I06 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

Assuming now, without argument, that there is 
such a thing as a true and genuine interest in the 
acquisition of knowledge, and that the multitude 
of writers who have emphasized this principle have 
not been mistaken, we may inquire what, by common 
consent, are regarded as the chief sources of right 
and wholesome interest. We may even go farther 
into the somewhat technical question of the chief 
phases or kinds which psychologists and philoso- 
phers have named in their efforts to classify interests. 
In this way we may get a sort of crude basis for the 
study of interest in its relation to the chief pedagogi- 
cal concepts named above. 

When a little girl three years old repeats with 
gusto the story of the death and burial of *' Poor 
Cock Robin," or sings it to herself for her own 
amusement when put to bed, we may inquire first 
how and why she learned it, and secondly why she 
repeats it to herself. It is a poem of thirteen verses, 
and a grown person, new to this kind of literature, 
would be subjected to painful toil in learning it. 
Without tedious reflection or psychological analysis 
one is inclined to answer that she Hked it, and that 
it was imprinted upon her memory without conscious 
effort. There was in the Mother Goose melody 
a rhythmic jingle and a simple dramatic story of 
persons which completely captured and continued to 
hold her interest. 

With equal fluency and ready prattle she repeats 



INTEREST 



107 



the story of the "Walrus and the Carpenter," 
of *' Old Mother Hubbard and her Dog," of " Simple 
Simon," of "Old King Cole," and other such divert- 
ing stories from " Mother Goose," and other sources. 
It is noticed also that a small boy seven years old, 
in the second grade, reads one of these Mother Goose 
stories with much intensity of interest. He bends 
to the task of spelling out and pronouncing new 
words with a courage and devotion that would 
please the elect. But if called upon to read an 
exercise in the second reader he might prove balky. 
Hugh Miller says : " During my sixth year I spelled 
my way through the Shorter Catechism, the Prov- 
erbs, and the New Testament, and then entered upon 
the highest form in the dame's school as a member 
of the Bible class. But all the while the process 
of learning had been a dark one, which I slowly 
mastered, in humble confidence in the awful wis- 
dom of the schoolmistress, not knowing whither it 
tended ; when at once my mind awoke to the 
meaning of the most delightful of all narratives — 
the story of Joseph. Was there ever such a dis- 
covery made before ! I actually found out for myself 
that the art of reading is the art of finding stories in 
books ; and from that moment reading became one 
of the most delightful of my amusements." 

William James says : " A college athlete who 
remains a dunce at his books may amaze you by 
his knowledge of the records at various feats and 



I08 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

games, and prove himself a walking dictionary of 
sporting statistics. The reason is, that he is con- 
stantly going over these things in his mind and 
comparing and making series of them." But if we 
ask ourselves why he makes these series and associa- 
tions, and fails to master those more important series 
in his college text-books, we are compelled to answer 
that he is interested in sporting matters but not in 
the text-books. A little four-year-old girl, with bright 
red stockings and shoes, and a new dress, is pleased 
with the chance of going to Sunday-school, and when 
she returns she knows how the little girls were 
dressed, their bonnets, and shoes and stockings, and 
ribbons, and their red or blue cloaks. In the midst 
of her pleasurable excitements she may have picked 
up the words of the golden text. Liebig when a 
boy in the German Gymnasium was a dunce in 
Latin, but he worked up a laboratory and made such 
rapid, enthusiastic progress in chemistry and physics 
that, when about twenty-one years old, he aston- 
ished the savants in Paris by the originality of his 
scientific experiments and demonstrations. 

A seven-year-old boy goes out with his aunt in the 
springtime on excursions to observe the wild birds, 
the first spring flowers, and the common weeds. It 
is delightful and almost pathetic to observe the 
pleasure with which he finds a spring blossom and 
stretches himself on the ground to see it more closely 
and to enjoy its beauty. At the close of the spring 



INTEREST 



109 



excursions, people are surprised at his knowledge of 
birds and flowers and weeds, and yet he is only an 
ordinary school urchin. It is said that the philoso- 
pher Kant on receiving a copy of Rousseau's **Emile" 
was so absorbed with its contents, that he did not 
go to bed nor take his usual meals till the book was 
finished. 

There are not a few instances of boys who in early 
years have taken great delight in studying Latin. 
In youth Frederick August Wolf showed an astonish- 
ing love for Latin and Greek in the original, so that 
when he entered the university at Gottingen, at the 
age of about eighteen, he had little to learn from his 
masters. In the story of " Tom Brown at Rugby," 
little Arthur, Tom's protege, was, on one occasion, 
so touched with feeling awakened by the Latin 
passage he was reading that he was unable to ex- 
press his thoughts in words, and no doubt thousands 
of scholars and teachers, after having mastered the 
difficulties of grammars and vocabularies, have found 
most enthusiastic delight in the orations of Cicero, 
in Vergil's '' Eneid," in Homer's " Odyssey," and 
Thucydides' history, in short, in the classic beauty 
and power in the ancient masters. 

In the last fifty years particularly, the study of 
natural science in its various branches has awakened 
a boundless enthusiasm. In France and England, 
in Germany and in the United States, the scientific 
leaders and investigators have bubbled over with 



no THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

enthusiasm for their chosen pursuits. So great has 
been their interest and success in these fields that 
they have remodelled our courses of study from the 
primary through the university, have compelled the 
thinkers and philosophers to modify the old systems 
of thought, and have astonished everybody with 
marvellous inventions and discoveries. 

But the enthusiasm of modern science experts is 
not a whit greater than was that of the classical 
scholars upon the revival of Latin and Greek learn- 
ing throughout Europe four hundred years ago. 
This enthusiasm for the ancient classics produced 
a system of education throughout Europe which has 
controlled the universities and the scholarly world 
and even the secondary schools up to the present 
time. The gradual rise of the scientific spirit and 
the immense enthusiasm of those believing in modern 
science, history, and literature, give us the only force 
which has been able to compete, on equal terms, 
with the spirit of the ancient learning. This would 
seem to indicate that the marked epochs of educa- 
tional history have found their origin and impulse in 
profound enthusiasms. A disciplinary schoolmaster, 
whose creed is bound tight to a dull routine, seems 
not to have dreamed of the spiritual enthusiasm 
of which his routine is a fossil survival. The 
examples given above may illustrate in a feeble 
way the variety of strong interests which people 
of different ages and dispositions have felt, and 



///' 



INTEREST 1 1 1 

show that these interests are powerful agents in 
education. 

Eminent thinkers have tried to give us a table 
^/of interests, a systematic grouping of these power- 
ful motives of mental action. About a hundred 
years ago, Herbart tried to grasp the whole field of 
interests in two large categories, each with three 
subordinate classes. The first group of interests 
consists of those which are awakened by nature apart 
from man. This includes the whole realm of natural 
science with its great variety of branches of study. 
Thersecond group includes the study of man in biog- 
raphy, history, literature, and all the social sciences. 
This grouping of the world about us into the two great 
fields, first of directly human affairs, and second of 
external objects and phenomena in nature, is a com- 
mon and convenient classification among thinkers. 
It gives emphasis, for pedagogical purposes, to the 
great realities of experience as distinguished from 
the more formal branches of study. Among natural 
objects and phenomena three chief sources of lively 
interest are distinguished. The empirical which is 
stirred by the superficial variety, novelty, and attrac- 
tiveness of things in nature. There is pleasure in 
observing the many faces and moods in nature. Be- 
tween the years of childhood and old age there is 
scarcely a person who does not enjoy a walk or a 
ride in the open air, where the variety of plant, bird, 
animal, and landscape makes a pleasing panorama. 



112 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

This is the chief source of interest for most people i 
who travel for the pleasure of sight-seeing. Speaila- 
tive interest springs from a deeper source and inquires 
into the relations and causal connections of phe- 
nomena. It is not satisfied with the simple play of 
variety, but seeks for the genesis and outcome of 
things. It traces out similarities and sequences, and 
detects law and unity in nature. In fact, it leads to 
science or classified knowledge. Even a child may 
be eager to know how a squirrel climbs a tree or 
cracks a nut, where it stores its winter food, when 
and how its nest is built, its manner of life in winter 
and summer ; why it is that a mole can burrow under- 
ground ; how it is possible for a fish to breathe in 
water. Esthetic interest is awakened by what is 
beautiful, grand, and harmonious in nature or art. 
The first glance of a vast cathedral, or of great over- 
hanging masses of rock in the mountains, oppresses us 
with a feeling of awe. The wings of an insect, with 
their delicate tracery and bright hues, are attractive 
and stir us with pleasure. The graceful ferns beside 
the brooks and moss-stained rocks suggest fairy-land. 
Of equal strength with these interests which at- 
tach us to the things of nature are the interests of 
humanity. The concern felt for other persons in joy 
or sorrow is based upon our interest in them as indi- 
viduals, and has been called the sympathetic interest. 
It is the basis of the strong bond of friendship. In 
it lies the charm of biography and the novel. Take 



^INTEREST 113 

away the personal interest we have in Ivanhoe, 
Quentin Durward, Ellen in the " Lady of the Lake," 
and other characters, and Scott's glory would quickly 
depart. What empty and spiritless annals would the 
life of Frederick the Great, Maria Theresa, Alex- 
ander, or Patrick Henry furnish ! In nearly all fic- 
tion, dramatic Hterature, and biography, the personal 
interest is the magnet which controls thought and 
attention. Social interest is the regard for the good 
or evil fortune of societies and nations. Upon this 
depends our concern for the progress of liberty and 
the struggle for free institutions in England and 
other countries. On a smaller scale clubs, fraternities, 
and local societies of all kinds are based on the social 
interests. \ Religions interest, finally, reveals our con- 
sciousness of man's Httleness and weakness and of 
God's providence. As Pestalozzi says, " God is the 
nearest resource of humanity." As individuals or 
nations pass away their fate lies in His hand. 

The sources of interest, therefore, are varied and 
productive. Any one of the six is unhmited in ex- 
tent and variety. Together they constitute a bound- 
less field for a proper cultivation of the emotional as 
well as the intellectual nature of man. ' A study of 
these sources of genuine interest, and a partial view 
of their breadth and depth, reveals to teachers what 
our present school courses tend strongly to make 
them forget ; namely, that the right kind of knowledge 
contains in itself the stimulus and the germs to great 



114 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

mental exertion. ' The dull drill upon grammar, 
arithmetic, reading, spelling, and writing, which are 
regarded as so important as to exclude almost every- 
thing else, has convinced many a child that school is 
veritably a dull place. And many a teacher is just as 
strongly convinced that keeping school is a dull and 
sleepy business. That these sources and materials 
of knowledge, arousing deep and lasting interests, are, 
above other things, adapted to children and to the 
schoolroom, is a truth worthy of all emphasis. 
*:C ^ Herbart's general theory of interest, in addition to 
vjy the six great classes described above, sets up a still 
more general comprehensive theory of interest by 
assuming a sort of affinity between the historical 
development of the race and the stages of mental 
development in children. Herbart believed that the 
ideal representation in the great literatures of the 
world of the more pronounced and valuable epochs 
of history would furnish the most appropriate thought 
material for the studies of children. The assump- 
tion was that this literature and history, when prop- 
erly selected and arranged, would make a strong 
appeal to the instinctive interests and understanding 
of children at their successive periods of growth. 
This vague notion has been elaborated by the suc- 
cessors of Herbart into the theory of culture epochs, 
and has had a pronounced influence upon their 
courses of study, especially on the side of the histori- 
cal, literary, and religious materials used. 



INTEREST 



115 



In discussing Herbart's classification of interests 
we are reminded that his psychology and pedagogy 
have been called a schoolmaster's psychology and 
pedagogy, implying a certain scholastic and school- 
mastery narrowness. There seems to be ground for 
this criticism, and yet it is, from one point of view, a 
praiseworthy weakness, if it means that Herbart was 
able to produce a psychology and pedagogy which 
had some adaptation to the schoolmaster's needs in 
the usual studies and management of his school. 
Some psychologists have not come so near as this to 
the schoolmaster. As compared with our more recent 
development of pedagogical thought, Herbart con- 
fines his ideas largely to the usual studies and disci- 
pline of the school. The whole group of interests 
involved in the motor activities, in doing, construct- 
ing, and in all the efforts at self-realization in material 
forms, as these have been brought to notice and 
emphasized in physiological psychology and in child 
study, — this whole group of interests was over- 
looked by Herbart, at least in ' his classification. 
Recent developments of psychology, child study, and 
of the social phases of school training have given an 
emphasis to the physical and motor life of children 
and to their relations with the world outside of the 
school to which Herbart gave much less attention. 
His emphasis of apperception brought the school 
studies into very close touch with the home and with 
all a child's experiences outside of school, but the 



Il6 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

emphasis was placed upon the school studies rather 
than upon a child's self-expressive activities. 

Herbart agrees with the more recent psychologists 
in attributing much greater value to the emotional 
life. Child study has led to a more careful examina- 
tion of children's interests and impulsive tendencies, 
and it is in the motor expression and development of 
these instinctive tendencies that much progress has 
been made in recent years. 

It is beheved that there is through childhood a 
successive rise of powerful instinctive interests, and 
that the education of children rests fundamentally 
upon the treatment and development of these inter- 
ests; that is, that in each important stage of child 
life there is a predominant interest which character- 
izes that period. To seize each of these interests at 
the crest of the wave, at the time of its greatest in- 
tensity, and to utilize it for teaching purposes, thus 
lending its momentum to all the child's efforts, both 
receptive and expressive, is regarded as a sign of the 
highest tact and wisdom in the teacher. 

John Dewey, in his recent book on " School and 
Society," goes a step farther, and puts these strong 
instinctive interests at work in social ways to bring 
the child into close relation with the natural world 
and with people and society about him. To a con- 
siderable extent he breaks loose from the traditional 
order of studies and tries to incorporate the typical 
industrial and social activities of the great world 



I 



1 



INTEREST 



117 



outside of the school into the school programme. 
One might say that the school is to epitomize the 
whole of our modern life in the effort to realize 
the child's life. Manual training in all its forms of 
wood work, drawing, basket making, weaving, sew- 
ing, cooking, and every variety of constructive work, 
and the typical processes in manufacturing, are ab- 
sorbed into the school programme. This is with a 
view to their educative influence upon body and 
mind, but especially with an emphasis of their social 
significance, so as to put the child into practical 
sympathetic relation with the various conditions of 
our modern life. Dewey says : " The introduction 
of active occupations, of nature study, of elementary 
science, of art, of history ; the relegation of the 
merely symbolic and formal to a secondary position ; 
the change in the moral school atmosphere, in the 
relation of pupils and teachers — of discipHne ; the 
introduction of more active, expressive, and self- 
directing factors, — all these are not mere accidents, 
they are necessities of the larger social evolution. It 
remains but to organize all these factors, to appreciate 
them in their fulness of meaning, and to put the 
ideas and ideals involved in complete, uncompromis- 
ing possession of our school system. To do this 
means to make each one of our schools an embryonic 
community life, active with types of occupations that 
reflect the life of the larger society, and permeated 
throughout with the spirit of art, history, and science. 



Il8 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

When the school introduces and trains each child of 
society into membership within such a little com- 
munity, saturating him with the spirit of service, and 
providing him with the instruments of effective self- 
direction, we shall have the deepest and best guar- 
antee of a larger society which is worthy, lovely, and 
harmonious." 

^^This whole superstructure of education rests upon 
a foundation of primordial, instinctive interests in 
children. Dewey says, " Now, keeping in mind 
these fourfold interests — the interest in conversa- 
tion or communication, in inquiry or finding out 
things ; in making things or construction, and in 
artistic expression — we may say they are the natural 
resources, the uninvested capital, upon the exercise 
of which depends the active growth of the child." 

The efforts of Dr. Dewey, in his experimental 
school at the University of Chicago, to put this plan 
into operation and to test its difficulties have shown 
that it is a good working hypothesis upon which to 
determine the value and practicability of a profoundly 
interesting and important theory of education. 

This discussion of the kinds and sources of inter- 
est, as conceived by Herbart, by recent child study, 
and by Dr. Dewey, shows first the strong and grow- 
ing tendency to place the instinctive, spontaneous 
interests of childhood in the first place of impor- 
tance in the scheme of education, and secondly, on 
the basis of these interests, to extend the scope of 



INTEREST 



119 



education to include the best culture materials which 
the history, literature, and science of the world fur- 
nish, and also the whole range of typical modern 
industries and social Ufe. It is needless to say that 
this is a large problem for the schoolmaster, but it is 
difficult to see, in Wew of the needs of the citizen 
and man in modem life, how anything less can be 
demanded. 

This leads us to a consideration of a phase of the 
doctrine of interest which has been much elaborated 
and emphasized by Herbart and his school ; namely, 
the' value of a juany-sided interest. With these 
writers it means the sympathetic cultivation in every 
child of the six classes of interest in nature and in 
man already described, and a selection of studies and 
materials suited to this purpose. It is claimed that a 
mind stimulated and enriched with knowledsce alons: 
all these Knes is \Vell-balanced and Uberalized. It 
will be free from narro'^-ness, bigotry, and prejudice, 
and inclined to be sympathetically active and public- 
spirited in all public and private affairs. 

With this tendency to spread out over a \\dde and 
varied field of actiWties, the serious question has 
arisen whether such variet}' of studies and interests 
does not weaken and undermine the force of educa- 
tion. Many have felt that this multiplicity of inter- 
ests must lead to scattering and superficial knowledge. 
With the emphasis of motor actiWties which is now 
made, many-sided interest would seem to point natu- 



120 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

rally to many-sided and distracting activity, to multi- 
plicity of employments, to that character which in 
Yankee phrase is designated as Jack of all trades and 
master of none. It is often said that the old school 
course, in contrast to this, was very simple, very thor- 
ough and strong in its disciplinary value. If the 
educational stream is confined between narrow banks, 
it will show a deep and full current. If allowed to 
spread out over the marshes and plains, it becomes 
sluggish and brackish. Our course of study for the 
common schools in recent years has been largely 
added to and extended over the whole field of knowl- 
edge. History, geography, elementary science, music, 
and drawing have been added to the old reading, 
writing, arithmetic, and grammar ; and now, in order 
to promote physical and motor activities of children, 
physical training and the various forms of manual 
construction and industrial life are demanded. 

There is certainly a much greater variety of inter- 
esting studies. When, in addition to this, enthusiastic 
teachers desire to increase the quantity of knowledge 
in each branch, to present as many interesting facts 
as possible so as to get a comprehensive grasp of 
these subjects, we have unmistakably the disease 
called the overloading of the school course. Chil- 
dren have too much to learn. They become pack 
animals, instead of free spirits rejoicing in the fields 
of knowledge. We start out with many-sided inter- 
ests, and end with universal apathy and dulness. 



INTEREST 121 

Mental vigor, after all, is worth more than a mind 
grown corpulent and lazy with excess of pabulum — 
overfed. The cultivation, therefore, of a many- 
sided interest ceases to be a blessing as soon as it 
becomes burdened with encyclopaedic knowledge. 
In fact, the desire on the part of the teachers to make 
the knowledge of any subject complete and encyclo- 
paedic destroys all true interest. 

And yet the advocates of a return to a narrow 
curriculum of two generations ago leave out of con- 
sideration some of the chief points in the argument. 
Our children are being educated to live and act and 
carry on business in a state of society radically dif- 
ferent from that of our grandfathers, infinitely more 
complex and many-sided in its demands upon the 
citizen. A child educated according to the narrow 
ideals of the old-fashioned schools would be very 
poorly qualified, if qualified at all, to meet the de- 
mands of the twentieth century. An intelligent citi- 
zen is required to possess some definite knowledge of 
many difficult things which our grandfathers never 
heard of, such as international arbitration, the single 
tax, socialism, concentration of capital into trusts, pub- 
lic sanitation ; public franchises, trades unions ; organ- 
ized labor, scientific farming, growing specialization 
in trades, the concentration of population in cities, etc. 

The children of our age must be educated to meet 
the problems of the present and the future rather 
than those of two or three generations ago. In most 



122 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

cases the lives of adults are rendered narrow and 
cramped if their school education was limited to a 
narrow field. The particular trade or business so 
engrosses most people's time that their sympathies 
are checked and their appreciation of the varied 
duties and responsibiUties of life is stunted. William 
James says that few people acquire new interests 
after the age of twenty-five. It is the business of 
the common schools to lay broad foundations, to 
awaken all those varieties of interest in the leading 
fields of knowledge which will serve to make him 
liberal-minded, public-spirited, of many-sided intelli- 
gence and sympathy in his adult life. 

Unquestionably the lives of most people run in too 
narrow a channel. They fail to appreciate and enjoy 
many of the common and important things about 
them to which their eyes were not properly opened 
in early years. The school cannot carry a child very 
far into any field of knowledge. The best it can do 
is to open up the subject in an interesting way, to 
give elementary ideas about it, and to awaken a curi- 
osity which will lead him in the future to seize upon 
further opportunities for extending his knowledge. 
In this sense every child in the public schools should 
be trained to a many-sided interest and curiosity. 
He has a right to claim those universal elements of 
culture in history, science, literature, music, art, physi- 
cal development, and social training which may be 
considered the birthright of all children. 



INTEREST 



123 



The trade school, the polytechnic institute, and the 
professional school can afford to specialize, to prepare 
for a narrow vocation. The common school, on the 
contrary, is preparing all children for general citizen- 
ship. The narrowing idea of a trade or calling should 
be kept away from the common school, and as far as 
possible varied interests in knowledge should be 
awakened in every child. 

There is reason for believing that most children 
are capable of taking strong interest in many kinds 
of study. If the nascent periods of interest are not 
used, if the boy has no opportunity to hunt and fish, 
at the time in boyhood when this impulse is strong, 
the chances are that he will have no interest in hunt- 
ing and fishing in later years. If he has no chance 
to read the story of "Sinbad the Sailor," of ''Jack and 
the Bean-stalk," of "Rip Van Winkle," at the time in 
childhood when these would delight him, he will 
not only show no interest in them in later years, 
but he will be heard narrowly carping at them as 
nonsense. 

The preference which some children show for some 
branches and dislike for others may be wholly due to 
peculiar early surroundings and influences, to neglect 
of cultivation at the proper time ; or it may be due 
to good or poor teaching as much as to natural pref- 
erences and gifts. Our assumption is, therefore, 
that children are not so radically different from 
one another, not by nature so strongly bent toward 



124 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

one subject and disinclined toward another, as has 
been often supposed. 

Every child has more or less sympathy and inter- 
est for companions and surrounding people in the 
home and neighborhood, and on this is based the 
interest of a child in story, biography, poem, drama, 
and history. So, also, the indifference to plant and 
animal life shown by many persons may be due to a 
lack of suitable suggestion and proper culture at an 
impressionable age. Children living in the country 
very frequently show little or no interest in the beau- 
ties of nature and the attractions of country life, but, 
if they are in companionship with their parents who 
take appreciative notice of such things, they quickly 
respond to these suggestions and develop a strong 
and abiding interest. 

The dull and irksome drills, the unskilful ap- 
proaches to school studies, the blunders of teachers 
in making subjects confused and uninteresting, will 
account in a large measure for the inveterate disHke 
which many children take for some of their studies. 
Generally speaking, therefore, it seems reasonable 
to assume that most children are capable of develop- 
ing a many-sided interest in the leading educational 
subjects. 

The culture of the many-sided interests is essential 
to a full development and perfection of the mental 
activities. It is easy to see that interest in any sub- 
ject gives all thought upon it a greater vigor and 



INTEREST 125 

intensity. Mental action in all directions is thus 
strengthened and vivified. To the educator it is 
always a pleasure to see the child so absorbed in his 
play, his construction of a house or boat, or in the 
reading of a book that his mind is oblivious of other 
things and it is difficult to gain his attention. On 
the other hand, mental life diminishes with the loss 
of interest, and even in fields of knowledge in which 
a man has displayed unusual mastery, a loss of inter- 
est is followed by a loss of energy. Excluding inter- 
est is like cutting off the circulation from a limb. 

Perfect vigor of thought, which we aim at in edu- 
cation, is marked by strength along three lines, — the 
vigor of the individual ideas, the extent and variety 
of ideas under control, and the connection and har- 
mony of ideas. It is one of the highest general aims 
of education to strengthen mental vigor in these 
directions. Many-sided interest is conducive to all 
three. Every thought that finds lodgement in the 
mind is toned up and strengthened by interest. It 
is also easier to retain and reproduce an idea that has 
been grasped with a full tide of feehng. An interest 
that has been developed along all leading Hnes of 
study has a proper breadth and comprehensiveness, 
and cannot be hampered and clogged by narrow 
restraints and prejudice. We admire a person not 
simply because he has a few clear and vigorous ideas, 
but also for the extent and variety of this sort of 
knowledge. Our admiration is checked when he 



126 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

shows ignorance or prejudice or lack of sympathy 
with important branches of study. Finally, the con- 
necting links, the unity and harmony of the various 
kinds of knowledge, are a source of great interest, 
power, and utility. The tracing of causal and other 
connections between different studies, and the com- 
manding insight that comes from proper association, 
are among the highest delights of learning. The 
connection and harmony of ideas is discussed under 
concentration or correlation. 

The discussion of the sources of interest has led us 
into a profound problem, or triple problem: (i) to 
determine the succession of powerful instinctive inter- 
est in childhood ; (2) to bring to Hght the best culture 
materials in the world's history for school use; (3) to 
discover the kinship between child and race develop- 
ment. The effort to classify interests has made clear 
the variety and depth of the sources from which true 
interest springs. Child study and the broader intro- 
duction of the principle of industrial and social activ- 
ity have given us a deeper grasp of the principle of 
interest as self-activity. 

The emphasis of many-sided interest gives us the 
conception of the well-balanced mind, the mind in 
proper equipoise, but stimulated to vigorous activity 
along all essential lines. These considerations lead 
us to conjecture that the emotional element which 
we call interest is an important ingredient of knowl- 
edge, that it depends much upon other important 



INTEREST 



127 



elements, and that it in turn greatly strengthens the 
other principles of mental life. 

We will now take up the conditions which are 
favorable to interest, which are preliminary to its 
proper rise and development. First, we may mention 
the healthy, wholesome bodily condition. Physical 
health and vigor have often been emphasized as a 
condition preceding all forms of smooth mental 
action, but perhaps, in considering the emotional life, 
we may find it more directly conditioned by healthy 
bodily state than the intellectual activities. Oster- 
mann says, ^^^ Mens sana in sano corpore' holds not 
less true in regard to the emotional life than it 
does in regard to the intellect. The normal suscep- 
tibility of mind, and the development of a healthy 
emotional life greatly depend on the soundness of 
the body. Irregularities in the state of the health 
of the body are, as a rule, followed by diseased 
states of the feelings, by feelings of ill-temper, of 
overexcitement, fatigue, etc., and these hamper and 
disturb the free development of those very feelings 
and interests which instruction is to awaken. What 
the school, for its part, can contribute to the preser- 
vation of health is, before all things, this — that in 
its requirements of the pupil it observe the proper 
measure. Owing to the intimate correlation existing 
between the psychical and physical processes every 
excess of mental exertion is immediately followed by 
disturbance of the physical organism. 



128 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

"To this may be added the bad effects resulting 
from want of exercise unavoidably connected with 
the overburdening of the schools — diminished breath- 
ing, disturbances in the circulation of the blood, indi- 
gestion, etc. — things that necessarily cause much 
physical and mental uneasiness. Woe to the school 
that by excessive demands becomes guilty of such 
deplorable results. It not only undermines the 
health of the children, but also deprives itself of the 
cream of its educational success. * Cheerfulness,* 
says Jean Paul, * is the sky under which everything 
thrives, poison excepted ; it is, at once, the soil and 
the blossom of virtue. Joyfulness, that feeling of a 
wholly untrammelled nature and life, opens the child's 
mind to take in the universe, causes all youthful 
powers to rise like the rays of the morning sun, and 
gives strength, whereas strength is taken away by 
sadness.' 

" Moreover, the school should bear in mind this : 
that only the healthy, fresh, and cheerful mind of 
the child will disclose itself to the ideal effects of 
instruction with the proper susceptibility and joyful- 
ness, and only in such a mind will that lively interest 
in everything good, such as is required for the foun- 
dation of all virtue, grow and bear fruit. The school, 
therefore, in destroying that natural cheerfulness by 
excessive demands upon the working faculty of the 
child, obstructs its own way to the heart of the 
child and ties the arteries of all successful educa- 



INTEREST 



129 



tional influence." " Interest in its Relation to Peda- 
gogy." Ostermann. Pages 94-96. 

The possibility of interesting children at any given 
age, or who stand at the same stage of mental growth, 
is made dependent upon the presentation of appro- 
priate knowledge. The same child in different stages 
of his growth is interested in quite different things. 
We have already observed how important is the prob- 
lem of discovering the successive rise of instinctive 
interests in childhood. It is gradually becoming 
established as a canon among teachers that we must 
find* for each period materials which, in their very 
nature, have power to interest a child. Interest be- 
comes thus a good test of the adaptabihty of knowl- 
edge. When any subject is brought to the attention 
of a child at the right age, in any suitable manner, it 
awakens in him a natural and lively feeling. 

It is evident that certain kinds of knowledge are 
not adapted to a boy at the age of ten. He cares 
nothing about political science, or medicine, or states- 
manship, or the history of literature. These things 
may be profoundly interesting to a person two or 
three times as old, but not to him. Other things, 
however, — the story of Ulysses, travel, animals, geog- 
raphy, and history, even arithmetic, — may be very 
attractive to a boy of ten. It becomes a matter of 
importance to select those studies and parts of studies 
for children, at their changing periods of growth, 
which are adapted to awaken and stimulate their 

K 



130 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 



a 



minds. We shall be saved then from doing what 
the best educators have so frequently condemned; 
namely, when the child asks for bread give him a 
stone, or when he asks for fish give him a serpent. 

The neglect to take cognizance of this principle of 
interest in laying out courses of study, and in the 
manner of presenting subjects, is certainly one of the 
gravest charges that ever can be brought against 
the schools. It is a sure sign that teachers do not 
know what it means to " put yourself in his place," 
to sympathize with children and feel their needs. 
The educational reformers who have had deepest 
insight into child-life, have given us clear and pro- 
found warnings. Rousseau says : " Study children, 
for be sure you do not understand them. Let child- 
hood ripen in children. The wisest apply themselves 
to what it is important to men to know, without con- 
sidering what children are in a condition to learn. 
They are always seeking the man in the child, with- 
out reflecting what he is before he can be a man." 

It is easy to demand of teachers that they select 
suitable interesting lessons for each grade ; but it is 
very difficult if not impossible at times to meet this 
requirement. It is worth the trouble to inquire 
whether it is possible or not to select subjects for 
school study which will prove essentially attractive 
and interesting from the age of six on. Occasionally 
a teacher is found who possesses the power, even 
with our present course of study, to hold the children 



INTEREST 



131 



steadily with interested attention. We know that 
fairy stories appeal directly to children in the first 
and second grade. They enjoy reproducing them, 
and drawing pictures by way of blackboard illustra- 
tion. The working out of reading lessons in connec- 
tion with these tales is spirited. At least reading a 
familiar story is a more interesting employment than 
working at the almost meaningless sentences of a 
chart or first reader. Even number work, when 
based upon the measurement of objects used in con- 
nection with the construction of boxes or as a help to 
accurate paper folding, is made to command the 
attention of little ones. They love to see and talk 
about pictures, plants, flowers, and animals. It requires 
probably as much skill to awaken and hold the in- 
terest in the first grade as in any of the higher grades, 
unless the older children have been thoroughly dulled 
by bad instruction and have fallen into fixed habits 
of Ustlessness. 

On what principles is it possible to select both 
interesting and valuable materials for the successive 
grades ? We will venture a partial answer to this 
difficult question. It has been known of old that the 
main interest of children must be attracted by what 
we may call the real knowledge subjects ; that is, 
those dealing with objective things, such as animals, 
industries, plants, storms, and all sorts of natural 
objects and phenomena. All these things children 
can get at directly through their senses or through 



132 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

their imagination, which they are quick to employ. 
From some cause or other the native interests of 
children spring up and are vividly stimulated by 
these concrete and realistic things. As an immediate 
consequence of this, it is a fact well established by 
experience that children are more touched and stim- 
ulated by particular persons and objects in nature 
than by any general propositions or laws or classifica- 
tions. They prefer seeing and examining a particular 
palm tree to hearing a general description of palms, 
no matter how fluent and graphic the description 
may be. They prefer a detailed account of Peter the 
Great when he worked as a ship's carpenter in Hol- 
land to any general description of his characteris- 
tics as a statesman and ruler. A narrative of some 
special deed of kindness, like that of Lincoln in the 
reprieve of the young soldier who was condemned to 
death for sleeping at his post, is more interesting and 
effective than a discourse on kindness and sympathy. 
Children feel a natural drawing toward definite per- 
sons and things and an indifference and repulsion 
toward generalities. They prefer the story to the 
moral. They are little materialists dwelling in a 
sense world or in a world of imagination, with very 
clear, definite, and pleasing pictures. 

Stronger still than the interest in mere objects of 
any sort is the deHght in those activities in which the 
boy works out his own problems and constructive 
tendencies, such as the building of a cave in imitation 



INTEREST 



133 



of Robinson Crusoe, or of a tree house, the construc- 
tion of a telephonic connection with some neighbor 
boy, the making in the workshop of a writing-desk, 
with pigeon holes and a folding shelf, to be used 
in his own room at home, fashioning tepees and 
canoes and playing the Indian, or girls representing 
Cinderella in a dramatic scene, making a work-basket 
for the sewing room, etc. The surprising interest 
shown by children in the manual training work when 
they are allowed, under wise guidance and suggestion, 
to make the things which they of their own volition 
wish to use or give as presents, such as sleds, work 
benches, traps, desks, footstools, nail boxes, letter 
files, etc., is a fruitful suggestion to teachers. 

It may not appear at first sight that these things 
bear closely on school work, but their close relation 
to many school and home needs, their use in illustrat- 
ing topics in geography, history, and science, their 
training of the motor and constructive activities, and 
their encouragement of voluntary enterprise in chil- 
dren will recommend them more and more to the 
thoughtful teacher. 

This ability to select materials of study adapted to 
interest children implies an intimate acquaintance 
with them, an appreciation of their likes and dis- 
positions at given ages, of their games and chosen 
activities, and of things in which their preferences 
and desires centre. 

This brings us to the third condition preliminary 



134 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 



1 



to interest, the previous experiences and acquired 
knowledge which the child employs as a basis of 
operations in acquiring any new experience, or, using 
a terminology which has recently come into vogue, 
the masses of apperceiving ideas which are neces- 
sary, not only to interest in a new subject, but to the 
understanding. It is now well understood that we 
do not acquire most of our knowledge directly, but 
through the mediation or active agency of previous 
knowledge and experience. We need only to refer 
to our discussion of apperception to remind ourselves 
how potent are these knowledges in seizing upon 
new experience. 

Very much depends upon the emotional temper 
with which we approach any new topic. Often- 
times the mind of a child stubbornly balks at the 
first glance of a new subject or lesson, because the 
thing stands there so senseless and blank, because no 
connective interpretation shoots across from the old 
to the new, lighting it up with meaning and produc- 
ing a glow of interested feeling. Instead of this 
the mind is flooded with a feeling of irritation and 
even anger. The child stands stock-still in his pout- 
ing grief, and it is necessary for the teacher, not to 
move forward, but first to extricate the victim from 
the slough of despond, to get back again on to solid 
ground, and then start out afresh with a new impulse. 
This is a jerking, wrenching, temper-ruining method 
of acquiring knowledge. We need less friction and 



INTEREST 135 

a smoother, more exhilarating forward movement in 
learning. The instant pleasure with which a child 
grasps a new problem as a modified case of some- 
thing already familiar, the mental leap into the new 
jungle with the conscious feeling that there is a light 
and open space just ahead, — this is the true mental 
attitude in learning. It is easily within the power 
of the teacher who understands the children and the 
subject, who can, by sympathy, put himself in the 
child's place and see the new subject with the child's 
experience, can touch those points of connection 
between new and old by which a child's interest and 
intelligence are simultaneously awakened. It is 
evident that interest plays like a swift shuttle back 
and forth between his inner self, his accumulated 
stock of notions, and the oncoming host of new ideas 
and experiences. But interest depends upon ideas 
and upon the intelligent connections established 
between them. Intelligence, however, can move 
scarcely an inch forward unless interest is close upon 
its heels or jogging its elbows. 

It is in the thick of the conflict, in these successive 
crises of instruction, that the teacher needs skill in 
method. The study of apperception, in its multi- 
tudinous examples, illustrating always a simple com- 
mon principle, will help him to get the right point of 
view, the sympathetic attitude, the keen perception 
for connections and interpretations, and especially 
an understanding of the emotional states, which, if 



; 



136 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

properly aroused, furnish the lubricating oil which 
gives an unclogged movement to the mental machin- 
ery. Interest is greatly dependent upon the smooth 
process of apperception. 

It is commonly stated that interest is dependent 
upon the will. When by a distinct exercise of will 
power we fix the attention upon some topic, even 
though at first it be uninteresting, the mind becomes 
preoccupied with it and interest is awakened. Even 
in a difficult problem in arithmetic, which the boy 
approaches with evident disHke, as soon as his mind 
becomes involved in its particulars, he acquires a cer- 
tain degree of interest. The desire to solve its diffi- 
culties is awakened, and by the time he has worked 
out a correct result, he attains to a distinct feeling of 
gratification. This form of will effort by which the 
mind is turned, directed, and concentrated upon some 
new object of thought, whether it be interesting or 
not, gives us the well-known voluntary attention. 

The relation of interest to voluntary attention is 
one of the most attractive and significant problems 
in pedagogy. William James says : " Whoever 
treats of interest, inevitably treats of attention, for 
to say that an object is interesting, is only another 
way of saying it excites attention. But in addition 
to the attention which any object already interesting 
or just becoming interesting claims, — passive atten- 
tion or spontaneous attention, we may call it, — there 
is a more deliberate attention, — voluntary attention 



INTEREST 137 

or attention with effort, as it is called, — which we 
can give to objects less interesting or uninteresting 
in themselves." People have been accustomed to 
suppose that the power of sustained attention was 
dependent upon this will effort, that steady attention 
to a subject is a result of a steady pressure of the 
will. James says further : " But a little introspec- 
tive observation will show any one that voluntary 
attention cannot be continuously sustained — that 
it comes in beats. When we are studying an unin- 
teresting subject, if our minds tend to wander, we 
have to bring back our attention every now and then 
by using distinct pulses of efforts, which revivify 
the topic for a moment ; the mind then running on 
for a certain number of seconds or minutes with 
spontaneous interest, until again some intercurrent 
idea catches it and takes it off. Then the process 
of volitional recall must be repeated once more. 
Voluntary attention, in short, is only a momentary 
affair. The process, whatever it is, exhausts itself 
in the single act; and, unless the matter is then 
taken in hand by some trace of interest inherent in 
the subject, the mind fails to follow it at all. Volun- 
tary attention is thus an instantaneous affair. You 
can claim it for your purposes in the schoolroom 
by commanding it in loud and imperious tones, and 
you can easily get it in this way. But unless the 
subject to which you call their attention has inherent 
power to interest the pupils, you will have got it for 



138 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

only a brief moment, and their minds will soon be 
wandering again. To keep them where you have 
called them you must make the subject too interest- 
ing for them to wander again." *' Talks to Teachers 
and Students." William James. Pages 100-103. 

From this statement we are able to see the func- 
tion of the will in giving the first impulse to the act of 
attention, and, in case the attention relaxes, to bring- 
ing this voluntary effort to bear to drag the atten- 
tion back again on to the right track. John Adams of 
Scotland says : '' Attention, as the psychologists have 
it, is inhibition. We do not really direct our attention 
to this or that object; we simply call it off from other 
objects." 

We can scarcely overestimate the power and im- 
portance of the will in thus giving the initiative to 
every important line of thought and effort, also in 
excluding unrelated topics, no matter how much they 
press for acceptance, and in bringing the mind back 
again to its duty whenever it shies off into by-paths. 

We see, therefore, that there is a number of pre- 
liminaries and predispositions which condition the 
rise and continuance of the feeling of interest in 
school exercises. First is a wholesome, healthy, 
bodily status; second, knowledge selected for its 
adaptability to awaken spontaneous interest ; third, 
the skilful use of familiar previous experiences, of 
the strong apperceiving masses of knowledge in the 
mind — this implies a sympathetic and expert method 



INTEREST 



139 



on the teacher's part ; fourth, the will, which gives 
the first direction and impulse in the mental attack, 
and issues sharp commands from time to time in the 
call to pressing duty. 

We are prepared now to ask. How does the feel- 
ing of interest influence and tell upon the other 
mental activities in the process of knowledge-getting? 

In reading a poem like ** The Lady of the Lake " or 
the speech of Edmund Burke on ** Conciliation with 
America," we observe that any phrase or passage 
which strikes us with peculiar force and gives us 
distinct pleasure is remembered without effort. In 
reading the dramas of Shakespeare, or in seeing 
them represented on the stage, those parts which 
appeal most strongly to the emotions afterward come 
springing back into the memory, while any poem 
like Young's " Night Thoughts " or parts of Words- 
worth's " Excursion," which one has read over with- 
out interest, fade out of thought before the page is 
finished. We have noticed before that a little child 
will often memorize a poem without conscious effort, 
because it is pleasing and delightful ; but it is hardly 
necessary to multiply examples of such common 
experience. We may assume that a keen interest 
quickens the mental powers, and gives an intensity 
to mental effort which can be acquired in no other 
way. The most intense exertions of the will fail to 
bring an object into such cohesive touch with the 
memory as a quickening interest with no apparent 



140 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

effort of the will at all. William James suggests 
that the common notion that the genius is the 
man of unusual power in sustained will effort is a 
mistake. He says : " The minds of geniuses are 
full of copious and original associations. The sub- 
ject of thought, once started, develops all sorts of 
consequences. The attention is led along one of 
these to another in the most interesting manner, 
and the attention never once tends to stray away. 
A genius is the man in whom we are the least 
likely to find the power of attending to anything 
insipid or distasteful in itself. He breaks his en- 
gagements, neglects his family duties incorrigibly, 
because he is powerless to turn his attention down 
and back from those more interesting trains of 
imagery with which his genius constantly occupies 
his mind." 

In order to understand the relation of interest to 
the whole mind's action in acquiring knowledge, it 
is necessary to examine closely the relation of inter- 
est to attention. Some distinguished psychologists, 
like Stumph, have claimed that interest and atten- 
tion are identical, and the relation between them is 
certainly so close that the sharpest thinkers have 
had some difficulty in distinguishing between them. 
G. T. Stout says, as quoted by Adams, " The coin- 
cidence of interest and attention is simply due to the 
fact that interest, as actually felt at any moment, is 
nothing but attention itself considered in its hedonic 



INTEREST 



141 



aspect." In the passage previously quoted from 
James, we noticed that the action of the will is 
instantaneous, but not persistent and continuous, 
and that even with voluntary attention interest must 
seize and carry the thought forward, or attention 
wanders and ceases. In the case of involuntary 
attention the act of attending is maintained through- 
out by interest. It may be clearly seen, therefore, 
that the feeling of interest is really the energy that 
supports attention throughout. Adams says : " Inter- 
est may be said to hold the same relation to involun- 
tary- attention that the will holds to voluntary. In 
involuntary attention the object plays the leading 
part; in voluntary attention, the soul." Again he 
says, " In any given state of attention the less the 
interest, the greater the amount of will power neces- 
sary to maintain it." 

The maintenance of attention by direct will power 
is a consciously heavy strain. The maintenance of 
attention by the force of interest is exhilarating, and 
almost free from friction and strain. If it is a ques- 
tion of economy and of avoidance of wear and tear 
in mental action, the learning of a lesson with inter- 
est is far superior to the excessive strain of sheer will 
effort. 

But if the mental machinery described above is 
correct, if the continued process of learning, both 
in the voluntary attention and in the involuntary, 
demands the steady support of interest, if James is 



142 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

right in saying that vokmtary attention is only instan- 
taneous, then the learning of a thing by sheer will 
power unattended by interest is impossible. 

It seems that psychologists, and especially peda- 
gogical thinkers, until more recently, have attributed 
to the will too wide and constant a range of influence, 
have made other forms of mental action merely tribu- 
tary to it, simply instruments which it used, such, for 
example, as attention, memory, imagination, judgment, 
and reason. In this way the will has been loaded up 
with too much responsibility. There has been a fail- 
ure to analyze sharply the helpful relations of associ- 
ation of ideas, of the emotional life, of apperception 
to the will. We have failed to see that by giving 
proper importance to these other mental functions 
sheer will could be relieved of a large part of its 
heavy burden, and the whole mental machinery be 
made to move with greater economy, ease, and 
effectiveness. 

If the strong psychological thinkers of the present 
time are right in their interpretation of these mental 
activities in their relation to the will, we may safely 
say that the healthy mechanism of the mind will do 
three-fourths of the work which has been usually 
attributed to pure will. 

What do we mean by saying that the machinery of 
the mind will perform this work and relieve the heavy 
irksome strain .-* Consider again the idea of attention. 
Formerly it was conceived as a pointed instrument 



INTEREST 



143 



with the steady force of will behind it, driving it 
through difficulties. Now that the emotional Hfe has 
been brought into significance, this pointed instrument 
is impelled by the quiet steady force of interest. The 
strength of this mechanism is better understood by 
considering the association of ideas and apperception. 
We know that the will cannot control the memory at 
its pleasure, but that memory is determined by the 
habitual lines of association previously formed. The 
will cannot command these mental resources arbi- 
trarily, summoning them at random or leaving them 
undisturbed as it pleases. It must follow the estab- 
lished habits of association. When the will has once 
centred attention upon an idea, swiftly this idea 
leads on to others in an associated series. Interest 
is awakened, and the attention is carried captive so 
long as the movement continues to draw new objects 
into view with their attending interests, and all this 
without the voluntary act of the will. This is, in 
part, what we mean by the mental mechanism, and 
by far the greater part of the work is done without 
the presence of the will. A somewhat similar ma- 
chinery of mental action appears in the process of 
apperception with its shuttlelike inter-action between 
the old and the new ideas, with the constant awaken- 
ing of feeling and strengthening of attention. 

James says in his chapter on association of ideas : 
" Your pupils, whatever else they are, are at any rate 
little pieces of associating machinery. Their educa- 



144 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

tion consists in the organizing within them of de- 
terminate tendencies to associate one thing with 
another," etc. " Those laws (of association) run the 
mind ; interest shifting hither and thither deflects it, 
and attention, as we shall later see, steers it and 
keeps it from too zigzag a course." 

If our arguments are correctly based, we are led 
to draw the conclusion that interest, when present, 
intensifies mental effort and contributes generously 
to memory, that it is such a close helper to attention 
that some psychologists have identified it with atten- 
tion. In this identification, or lack of close analyses, 
the importance of interest as a factor has been over- 
looked. Interest, like Siegfried, in the old myth, has 
been left out of the count. It will be remembered 
that King Giinther, in his contest with Brunhilde, 
had the support of the invisible Siegfried at his side, 
and it was Siegfried's strength that carried the king 
to easy victory. King Giinther, therefore, received 
the credit for success in the contests, though Siegfried 
had done the work. Likewise, will has secured the 
credit which was really due to this unrecognized 
force of interest. We conclude further that the 
extravagant influence and autonomy of the will, its 
overwhelming duties and functions, should be dis- 
tributed to those appropriate parts of the mental 
machinery which can do them with much greater 
ease and less friction. There was a time when all 
the functions of government were centred in an 



INTEREST 



145 



autocratic sovereign, but with growth and improve- 
ment in government these functions have been dis- 
tributed to those coordinate divisions which we call 
executive, legislative, and judicial, and are better 
performed by such a constitutional machinery. In 
an analogous way, we may believe that the all-domi- 
nant influence of the will in all the lesser details of 
mental action is beginning to yield its sway to those 
coordinate branches of the mental organism which 
are now seen to have a well-regulated machinery 
of their own, better adapted than the will to the 
petformance of these functions. 

We may summarize the positive value of interest 
in its relation to other mental states as follows : 
Interest is the feeling side of attention, and so ener- 
gizes attention as to produce the most efficient 
memory work. Involuntary attention is wholly de- 
pendent upon interest. Little children learn easily by 
involuntary attention, but have almost no power of 
voluntary attention. Even in the voluntary attention, 
interest sustains mental action between the longer 
pauses left by the instantaneous pulses of will effort. 
The will, therefore, depends for smoothness and 
effectiveness upon the machinery of the mind sup- 
plied by interest and the association of ideas. 

Having discussed the conditions which are favor- 
able to interest, and on the other hand the re- 
enforcement which interest brings to attention, 
memory, and will, we are prepared to grapple with 



146 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

that serious and oft-debated question, how to secure 
strong and steady will effort in encountering difficul- 
ties, how to train children to meet disagreeable and 
irksome tasks. There seems to be no difference of 
opinion among writers and teachers as to the result 
to be desired and attained. Not even the extreme 
advocates of pleasant and attractive modes of instruc- 
tion would have the hardihood to object to a vigorous 
and severe discipline which hardens the mind to meet 
difficulties. The hardening process, by which the 
mind is steeled to encounter disagreeable and irksome 
tasks, has been a favorite dogma with schoolmasters 
for so many generations, and has been so influential 
in determining the course of study, that we shall not 
easily disturb its monopoly. The favorite doctrine 
of formal discipline also has been behind all the 
schoolmaster's work, sustaining every demand for 
hardship and rigor. Moreover, the character of the 
studies selected for children made it impossible to 
support any doctrine of interest and stick to the 
school programme. Even as recent a writer as 
William James says : " The greater part of school- 
room work, you say, must, in the nature of things, 
always be repulsive. To face uninteresting drudgery, 
is a good part of life's work. Why seek to eUminate 
it from the schoolroom or minimize the sterner law ? " 
Then for himself he says : " It is certain that most 
schoolroom work, till it has become habitual and 
automatic, is repulsive, and cannot be done without 



INTEREST 



147 



voluntarily jerking back the attention to it every now 
and then. This is inevitable, let the teacher do what 
he will. It flows from the inherent nature of the 
subject and of the learning mind." 

This is an astonishing statement, but one which 
many a schoolmaster may be found to sanction. To 
one who has been accustomed to observe the rapt 
attention and pleasure with which many little chil- 
dren in the first and second grades follow the reading 
exercises (one of the most difficult problems of 
primary work) this statement of Professor James 
may seem overdrawn. Even with such schools and 
courses of study as we now have, it is not unusual 
to find an intermediate or grammar school class 
thoroughly interested in the most vigorous work 
in mental arithmetic. We have even seen a skil- 
ful grammar teacher in the eighth grade with an 
enthusiastic class, attentive and thinking well, in 
the study of adjectives or modifiers of the verb, 
not because the teacher invented spicy jokes, but 
because she got them interested in the meaning 
and grammatical relations. Most of the geography 
topics now taught in a considerable number of our 
schools are followed and mastered by the children 
with evident pleasure. They are full of interesting 
and instructive material suited to the age and compre- 
hension of the children. The biographical stories 
now taught in good schools in intermediate grades 
are delightfully instructive, whether handled orally 



148 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

by the teacher or read by the children, and the 
more advanced historical work in the grades is often 
studied in a spirited, appreciative way. 

The study of our best American and English 
classics as reading lessons in all grades above the 
primary, has worked out in many schools such satis- 
factory and pleasing results with children that the 
whole body of thoughtful teachers has been en- 
couraged and led to believe that we have found an 
abundant and rich material of study upon which the 
best sympathetic, emotional life of the children can 
be strongly cultivated. High ideals both moral and 
aesthetic are formed, together with a heartfelt interest 
in such choice things as " The Village Blacksmith," 
"Vision of Sir Launfal," "The Great Stone Face," 
"Snow Bound," "The Lady of the Lake," " Evan- 
geline," " The Pied Piper of Hamelin," " Robinson 
Crusoe," " Beauty and the Beast," the Bible stories, 
" The Wonder Book," " Arabian Nights," etc. Many 
of the science lessons now taught in the primary 
schools and upward are all that can be desired in 
the way of pleasing and satisfactory results. In 
this field the only questions that now trouble us 
are how to select the best topics and how to equip 
ourselves as teachers with abundant and concrete 
knowledge and to acquire a skilful method of hand- 
ling the interesting material. We are not so irrev- 
erent as to say that nature study with children is 
for the most part essentially repulsive. 



INTEREST 



149 



In going into a manual training room, where chil- 
dren were engaged in making things of some sig- 
nificance and worth to themselves, many an old 
school superintendent has been astonished at the 
complete absorption of the workers in their different 
tasks. Any one must be doubly blind who would 
say these are "dumb driven cattle" plodding away 
at their repulsive tasks. The fact is, that Dr. James 
is so delightfully interesting as a lecturer and writer 
that he is a positive and convincing illustration of 
the opposite theory. Under his luminous treatment, 
even as supposedly dull a subject as the application 
of psychology to pedagogy coruscates with flashing 
elements of intrinsic interest. Dr. James is not a 
pessimist, and the passages above quoted are out 
of harmony with numerous passages that could be 
quoted from his book as well as with the general 
tone of his whole treatment. 

But this striking statement that "most school 
work, until it has become habitual and automatic, 
is repulsive " is the platform or rather the unshakable 
foundation (because a platform sometimes can be 
broken down) upon which that large body of teachers 
stand with whom interest is identical with " soft 
pedagogy," as Dr. James calls it, and who do not 
believe that the school studies have any considerable 
amount of intrinsic interest for children. 

The phrase, "until it has become habitual and 
automatic," suggests plainly the difference in point 



I50 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

of view between the two schools. First master the 
studies of the school till they become habitual and 
automatic, then they will cease to be repulsive. 
This means practically the whole work of the 
school. Those who believe in the doctrine of 
interest think that the highest satisfaction that chil- 
dren can know is in the very process of acquiring 
and mastering their studies. The school subjects 
themselves, if properly selected and approached, 
have inherent power to attract and interest the 
children. The mediaeval point of view is well 
illustrated by Latin study. No one would have the 
hardihood to claim that boys studying Latin vocabu- 
laries, rules, and syntax, would find much interest the 
first two or three years. But when they have 
mastered the grammar and vocabularies and can 
read the simpler authors easily (Latin having become 
; habitual and automatic), they begin to catch the spirit 
1 and power of the author and become interested. 
Does the theory of Latin study of three hundred 
years ago, by which children must spend three or 
four years in wearisome toil, unrelieved by interest, 
before reaching any easement in their work — does 
this theory apply to our modern school course .-* On 
the contrary, children coming into the school at six 
years with a knowledge of the EngHsh language, are 
introduced at once to many of the choicest stories and 
poems of English literature. From the very begin- 
ning of the first grade they are brought face to face 



INTEREST 



151 



with flowers and insects, with the blossoming trees, 
singing birds, and with many other equally attractive 
objects in nature. They are set to work at simple 
crude blackboard drawings and constructive effort in 
paper folding, weaving mats, scissor work, clay mould- 
ing, house building, etc., which gives them happy 
educative employment. Even the so-called formal 
exercises of learning to read, write, and spell, are 
relieved by simple and interesting stories and games, 
which derive some of the joyful spirit from contact 
with thought matter of real worth. In our better 
schools we are as far away from the dull mechanical 
exercises of one or two generations ago as the steam 
engine is distant from the stage-coach. 

Many schoolmasters and book-makers have been 
so enamored of the doctrine of hardship and distress 
in learning, that they have deemed it one of their 
highest functions to invent artificial difficulties, there 
not being sufficient of these in the natural course of 
school affairs. One of the German writers, as quoted 
by Paulsen, says that one of the peculiar merits in 
the study of Latin as taught in his time was, that it 
was extremely difficult, so much so, indeed, that the 
boy in his later life would never find such difficulties 
to meet, and if he had mastered his Latin, it was cer- 
tain that he could master any lesser difficulties that 
he would later encounter. 

But any one who has considered the vast stretch 
and variety of studies opening up before every child, 



152 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 



1 



and of the great number of inherent and unavoidable 
difficulties which beset his course in every study, will 
abandon forever the idea of inventing educational 
hardships and conundrums. On this point James 
says : " The teacher, therefore, need never concern 
himself about inventing occasions where effort must 
be called into play. Let him still awaken whatever 
sources of interest in the subject he can by stirring 
up connections between it and the pupil's nature, 
whether in the line of theoretic curiosity, of interest, 
or of pugnacious impulse. The laws of mind will 
then bring pulses of effort into play to keep the 
pupil exercised in the direction of the subject." 

Our great problem in teaching is not to invent 
difficulties but to find out the best ways for the child 
to overcome them. We wish him to employ his 
knowledge, his interest, his will-power, in short, all 
his mental machinery, in a strong and unremitting 
effort to master difficulties. We are inclined to say 
that the best way to do this is to reduce friction to a 
minimum. It has been the effort of machinists dur- 
ing years and centuries of progress, by every device 
which their ingenuity and skill could discover, to 
reduce friction by means of the smoothest adjust- 
ment of axles, lubricating oils, smooth and level 
tracks, and latterly by the wonderful ball-bearing 
devices. In other words, the machinists have done 
their utmost to overcome the difficulties in using the 
materials in nature by the most skilful use of nature's 



INTEREST 153 

forces and laws. It is difficult to see why the still 
more delicate machinery of the mind should not be 
allowed to operate upon the same principle, namely, 
to overcome necessary difficulties by the least ex- 
penditure of effort, or, still better, to allow the vari- 
ous parts of the mental machinery to work together 
in accordance with the laws of this mechanism with 
the least friction and strain. This seems to be not 
only scientifically correct but practically desirable ; for 
nowadays there is no limit to the difficulties which 
the mind should be brought to overcome. The great- 
est economy of effort, therefore, is desirable. 

It has been claimed by the advocates of interest 
that it is the greatest friction-reducing element in 
giving smoothness and certainty to the efforts of the 
will. The opponents of interest have held to the 
precisely opposite view, namely, that interest under- 
mines will. Adams says : " We find that so far from 
enervating the pupil, the principle of interest braces 
him up to endure all manner of drudgery and hard 
work," and he supports this view with many apt illus- 
trations. James says : " In real life our memory is 
always used in the service of some interest. We re- 
member things which we care for or which are asso- 
ciated with things which we care for ; " and again, 
" This preponderance of interest, of passion, in deter- 
mining the results of a human being's working life 
obtains throughout." Ostermann says : " The fact 
that the whole range of the associative process, as 



154 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

well as attention and retentiveness of the memory, 
and indeed, all spontaneous and happy devotion to 
school work, is dependent upon interest, makes it evi- 
dent that interest is of special significance for the 
intellectual results of school instruction. At the 
same time the fact that all the motives of conscious 
effort and volition depend on interest, causes interest 
to assume, from an educational standpoint, the signifi- 
cance of a cardinal concept of pedagogy, of a funda- 
mental principle on whose proper recognition depends 
more than upon anything else the educational success 
of school instruction as well as the success of home 
training. In whatever direction the predominating 
interests of man incline, thither also tend with psy- 
chological necessity his striving and volition." 

The objections of the opponents to the theory of 
interest seem to lie mainly in the assumption that 
interest is fitful, emotional, unreliable, and even mis- 
leading. Instead of supporting a good will, it often 
runs directly counter to it and interferes with and 
weakens the will effort. It seems to us that the best 
way to solve this difficulty is to yoke up interest and 
will together, and let them both pull in the same 
direction. One of the strongest arguments on this 
point is that of John Dewey in his essay " Interest 
as related to Will," in which he claims that will effort 
divorced from interest splits and weakens attention. 
He says : " The theory of effort, as already stated, 
means a virtual division of attention and the corre- 



INTEREST 155 

spending disintegration of character, intellectually 
and morally. The great fallacy of the so-called 
effort theory is, that it identifies the exercise and 
training of will with certain external activities and 
certain external results. It is supposed, because a 
child is occupied with some outward result, and be- 
cause he succeeds in exhibiting the required product, 
that he is really putting forth will, and that definite 
intellectual and moral habits are in process of forma- 
tion. But as a matter of fact, the moral exercise of 
the will is not found in the external assumption of 
any posture, and the formation of moral habit cannot 
be identified with the ability to show up results at 
the demand of another. The exercise of the will is 
manifest in the direction of attention, and depends 
upon the spirit, the motive, the disposition, in which 
the work is carried on. 

"The child may be externally entirely occupied 
with mastering the multiplication table, and be able 
to reproduce that table when asked to do so by his 
teacher. The teacher may congratulate himself that 
the child has been so exercising his will power as to 
be forming right intellectual and moral habits. Not 
so, unless moral habit be identified with this ability 
to show certain results when required. The question 
of moral training has not been touched until we know 
what the child has been internally occupied with, 
what the preponderating direction of his attention, 
his feelings, his disposition, has been while engaged 



156 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

upon this task. If the task has appealed to him 
merely as a task, it is as certain, psychologically, as 
the law of action and reaction, physically, that the 
child is simply engaged in acquiring the habit of 
divided attention; that he is getting the ability to 
direct eye and ear, Hps and mouth, to what is present 
before him in such a way as to impress those things 
upon his memory, while at the same time getting his 
mental imagery free to work upon matters of real 
interest to him. 

" No account of the actual moral training secured 
is adequate unless it recognizes the division of atten- 
tion into which the child is being educated, and faces 
the question of what the moral worth of such a divi- 
sion may be. External mechanical attention to a 
task conceived as a task, is the inevitable correlate 
of an internal mind-wandering along the lines of the 
pleasurable. 

" The spontaneous power of the child, his demand 
for realization of his own impulses, cannot by any 
possibility be suppressed. If the external conditions 
are such that the child cannot put his spontaneous 
activity into the work to be done, if he finds that he 
cannot express himself in that, he learns in a most 
miraculous way the exact amount of attention that 
has to be given to this external material to satisfy 
the requirements of the teacher, while saving up the 
rest of his mental powers for following out lines of 
imagery that appeal to him. I do not say that there 



INTEREST 157 

is absolutely no moral training involved in forming 
these habits of external attention, but I do say that 
there is a question of moral import involved in the 
formation of the habits of internal inattention." 

The friends of the doctrine of interest, therefore, 
not only subscribe to the notion of severe effort and 
exertion, but, wherever difficulties are to be met, 
they demand a greater concentration of will energy, 
and intellectual effort, than that obtained by the 
sheer exercise of will. We need a force superadded 
to the will which will lead children to exert them- 
selves with greater energy when encountering dis- 
agreeable tasks. There are places in every subject 
where work is felt as a burden rather than a pleasure ; 
but the interest and energy developed, the farther- 
reaching aims and motives, which make their appeal 
to the child in the more attractive parts of the sub- 
ject, will carry him through the swamps and mires 
at a speedier rate. 

In opposition to such a lively and humane treat- 
ment, with its motive-producing stimulus, a dry and 
dull routine has often been praised as the proper 
discipline of the mind and especially of the will. 
Ziller says : " It was a mistake to find in the simple 
pressure of difficulties a source of culture, for it is 
the opposite of culture. It was a mistake to call the 
pressure of effort, the feeling of burden and pain, a 
source of proper will training, simply because will 
power and firmness of character are thus secured 



158 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

and preserved to youth. Pedagogical efforts look- 
ing toward a lightening and enlivening of instruction 
should not have been answered by an appeal to severe 
methods, to strict dry and dull learning, that made 
no attempt to adapt itself to the natural movement of 
the child's mind." 

Not those studies which are driest, dullest, and 
most disagreeable, unrelieved by interesting points 
of contact with the child's inner self, should be 
selected upon which to awaken the mental forces, 
but rather those studies which naturally arouse his 
interest and prompt him to a lively spontaneous exer- 
cise of his powers. For children of the third and 
fourth grades to read and narrate the story of the 
Golden Fleece, is a more suitable exercise than to 
memorize the one hundred and nineteenth psalm or 
the catechism. 

Interest as a support to the will, and even as a will 
stimulus, has peculiar advantages. It is not, indeed, 
desired that chance inclinations and feelings shall 
take possession of the mind, especially not the dis- 
orderly and momentary impulses. The worthier 
purposes and impulses should be brought under the 
immediate service of the will, and be allowed to exe- 
cute its behests. The importance of awakening 
interest as a basis of will cultivation is found in the 
favorable mental state induced by interest as a pre- 
liminary and attendant to action along the best lines. 
Interest is a quiet, steady undertone of feeling which 



INTEREST 159 

brings everything into readiness for action, clears 
the deck, so to speak, and even begins and vigorously 
supports the attack. It would be a vast help to 
many boys and girls if the irksomeness of study in 
arithmetic, history, grammar, etc., which is often so 
fatal to will energy, could give way to the spur of 
interest ; and when the wheels are once set in motion, 
progress would not only begin but be sustained by 
interest. It would be well if every study and lesson 
could arouse such a steady interest. It would be in 
many cases like lubricating oil poured upon dry and 
creaking axles. Knowledge would then have a flavor 
to it, and would be more than a consumption of cer- 
tain facts and formulas coldly turned over to the 
memory machine. The child's own personality must 
become entangled in the facts and ideas acquired. 
There should be a sort of affinity established between 
the child's soul and the information he gains. At 
every step the sympathy and life experiences from 
without the school should be intertwined with school 
acquisitions. All, then, would be woven together and 
permeated by feeling. We forget that the feelings 
or sensibilities awakened by knowledge are what give 
it personal significance to us and lead on to action. 

The greater the amount of this kind of motive- 
producing knowledge, which lays tribute on the 
child's inner self, what Dewey calls ** the spontaneous 
power of the child, his demand for the realization of 
his own impulses," the stronger ahd steadier may we 



l60 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

expect his exercise of will under difficulties and hard- 
ships to be. 

It is also true that a proper interest is a protection 
against the desires, disorderly impulses, and passions. 
One of the chief ends of education is to bring the 
inclinations and importunate desires under mastery, 
to estabUsh a counterpoise to them by the steady and 
persistent forces of education. A many-sided inter- 
est, cultivated along the chief paths of knowledge, 
implies such mental vigor and such preoccupation 
with worthy subjects as naturally to discourage un- 
worthy desires, James shows that this predominance 
of the better feelings and interests is secured partly 
by the inhibition which the higher feelings exercise 
over the lower, and partly by a direct cultivation of 
the higher feeHngs and neglect of the lower. 

Locke says, self-restraint, the mastery over one's 
inclinations, is the foundation of virtue. " He that 
has found a way how to keep a child's spirit easy, 
active, and free, and yet, at the same time, to restrain 
him from many things he has a mind to, and to draw 
him to things that are uneasy to him ; he, I say, that 
knows how to reconcile these seeming contradictions, 
has, in my opinion, got the true secret of education." 

The solution of this great problem lies not in elimi- 
nating and ignoring either the agreeable or the dis- 
agreeable features of training, neither in avoiding the 
difficulties nor in sacrificing the pleasures of study, 
but in arousing the motives and interests which will 



INTEREST l6l 

assist the will, giving impetus and strength in the 
direction in which it turns mental action. How is 
the teacher to approach and influence the will of the 
child so that he may acquire self-mastery ? Is it by 
supposing that the child has a will already developed 
and strong enough to push through all obstacles ? On 
the contrary, must not the teacher put incentives in 
the path of the pupil, cultivate higher motives and 
feelings, which will prompt him to self-denial, and 
assist the will in mastering lower forms of impulse ? 

In summing up the argument as to how we may 
develop that strength of character by which irksome 
and disagreeable tasks are boldly faced and over- 
come, we may say that it is not by an appeal to sheer 
will, but by gradually cultivating not only the will but 
all those intellectual and emotional habits upon which 
the efficiency of the will depends. In order that the 
mind as a whole act with the least friction and strain, 
feeling, intellect, and will must act in unison. Where, 
on the contrary, will and feeling pull in opposite 
directions, the force of attention is divided, mental 
effort weakened, and moral character disintegrated. 
Again, the cultivation of wholesome and hearty in- 
terests is a protection against all the lower forms of 
feeling and impulse. The experience of many teach- 
ers in our schools to-day goes to prove that even our 
present school studies have strong and varied sources 
of interest which are of the greatest value in encour- 
aging children to master their problems. 

M 



CHAPTER IV 

CORRELATION 

By correlation is meant such a connection be- 
tween the parts of each study and such a spinning of 
relations and connecting links between different 
sciences, that unity may spring out of the variety of 
knowledge. History, for example, is a series and 
collocation of facts explainable on the basis of cause 
and effect, a development. On the other hand, his- 
tory is intimately related to geography, language, 
natural science, literature, and mathematics. It 
would be impossible to draw real history out by the 
roots without drawing all other studies out bodily 
with it. 

Correlation is so bound up with the idea of 
character-forming that it includes more than school 
studies. It lays hold of home influences, and all the 
experiences of life outside of school, and brings them 
into the daily service of school studies. It is just as 
important to bind up home experience with geogra- 
phy, arithmetic, language, and other studies, as it is 
to see the connection between geography and history. 
In the end, all the knowledge and experience gained 

by a person at home, at school, and elsewhere, should 

162 



CORRELATION 163 

be classified and related, and each part brought into 
its right associations with other parts. 

Nor is it simply a question of throwing the varied 
sorts of knowledge into a network of crossing and 
interwoven series, so that the person may have ready 
access along various lines to all his knowledge stores. 
Correlation draws the feelings and the will equally 
into its circle of operations. To imagine a character 
without feeling and will would be like thinking of a 
watch without a mainspring. All knowledge prop- 
erly taught generates feeling. The will is steadily 
laying out, during the formative period of education, 
the highways of its future activities. Habits of will- 
ing are formed along the lines of associated thought 
and feeling. The. more feeling and will are enlisted 
through all the avenues of study and experience, the 
more permanent is their influence upon character. 

The opposite of correlation is the isolation, the 
strict separation, of studies, and the neglect of the 
connecting links between them. Up to the present 
time the distinct isolation of the branches of learning 
has been the rule, and attempts at closer articulation 
of different studies have been exceptional. In a 
great many schools at present children are given 
half a dozen or more recitations in a single day, al- 
most wholly distinct and unrelated to one another; 
and even if relations exist, they are left unnoticed. 
Herbart says : ** I cannot refrain from wondering 
what sort of a process is being worked out in the 



1 64 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

heads of schoolboys who, in a single forenoon, are 
driven through a series of heterogeneous lessons, 
each one of which, on the following day, at the 
regular tap of the bell, is repeated and continued. Is 
it expected that these boys will bring into relation 
with one another and with the thoughts of the play- 
ground the different threads of thought there spun ? 
There are educators and teachers who, with mar- 
vellous confidence, presuppose just this, and in con- 
sequence trouble themselves no further." 

Correlation seeks to overcome the present uncon- 
nectedness of studies ; it lays stress upon relations 
and seeks to enlarge the range of a child's thought- 
fulness and rational survey, his self-activity and 
insight, by so planning and laying out the course 
of study that the sciences everywhere may be 
brought into more vital juxtaposition, that the child's 
knowledge may be unified and his practical power 
over it increased. 

In the discussion of this subject different terms 
have been employed to express different degrees of 
emphasis upon the idea of relations, such as coordina- 
tion, correlation, and concentration. 

Coordination of studies implies the setting up of 
distinct and independent branches of study of equal 
rank. It is an emphasis of the equality of studies 
rather than of the interrelations. In his Jacksonville 
paper Dr. Harris names the five coordinate groups 
as follows : i. Mathematics and physics. 2. Biol- 



CORRELATION 1 65 

ogy, including plant and animal. 3. Literature and 
art. 4. Grammar as a science and leading to logic 
and psychology. 5. History, including the study 
of sociological, political, and social institutions. 
Dr. Harris says : " It will be seen that the Com- 
mittee of Fifteen intended their report to convince 
the careful reader that no one of these groups could 
be taken as a substitute for any other, and that 
no one of these groups could be spared from a 
symmetrical whole without destroying the pupil's 
view of the world. It would have needed no ad- 
ditional argument to arrive at the conclusion that 
if there are five coordinate groups, neither one of 
which can be a substitute for the other, and each 
of which is essential to the child's symmetrical 
view of the world, a concentration which subor- 
dinated one or more of these groups to another 
would do violence to the child's culture." So far as 
this passage is concerned, coordination expresses a 
distinct isolation of important groups and a fear 
of any closer dependence of one important group 
upon another. Coordination therefore gives no em- 
phasis to the relations between studies. Expressed 
in the form of a diagram, coordination gives us in 
this case five parallel lines, with no cross-connections 
between the groups, as follows : — 

Correlation, as commonly used, expresses the idea 
of interconnections between studies. A good analogy 



1 66 



THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 



is the warp and woof of a woven fabric. The threads 
run in both directions and are closely woven to- 
gether ; the studies represent the linear threads, run- 
ning lengthwise of the cloth, while the crossing 
threads represent the connections between studies. 
Expressed in the form of a diagram, it gives us the 
five main lines with cross-connections. 

Concentration not only emphasizes connections, 
but it requires the dependence of some studies upon 
others. In an extreme form it sets one study or 
group of studies in the centre of the curriculum, and 
concentrates all other studies or groups in more or 
less subordinate relations around this centre. It is 
illustrated diagrammatically by a heavy Hne in the 
centre, with lesser parallel lines closely connected 
with it 



A G H S I, 



Coordinative 



A G H S I, 



Correlation 



\. c 


I I 


I i 


5 I 
















— 


-- 








— 










— 


im 


■ — 





Concentratioa 



The sequence of topics in the subordinate study 
may be determined to some extent by the central 
study. The amount of this subordination depends 
upon the general plan of laying out the course of 
study. 



CORRELATION 1 67 

In connection with coordinate groups of study the 
term " correlation " is used in a sense different from 
that described above. Each group of studies correlates 
the child, on one side, with the world, on the other. 
We might call this a linear correlation, the things 
correlated being the child and the world, through 
the long Hne of each particular study. In this 
sense correlation ignores the relations between the 
studies. 

In the present chapter I am disposed to emphasize 
strongly the idea of correlation as a means of binding 
together more closely all the studies and experiences 
of a child. 

In a very important sense the centre for all con- 
centrating efforts in education is not simply the 
knowledge given in the school course, but the child's 
mind itself with its contents. We do not desire to 
find in the school studies an objective centre, but 
rather a means of fortifying the original stronghold 
of character which is built upon native mental char- 
acteristics and whatever is good in home influences. 
We have in mind the practical union of all the ex- 
periences and knowledge that find entrance into a 
particular mind. 

There are several different ways by which correla- 
tion can be brought about. 

First is the close serial connection of ideas in a 
single study. Most teachers will admit that each 
lesson should be a collection of connected facts, and 



> 



1 68 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

that every study, so far as it is a science, should con- 
sist of a series of derivative and mutually dependent 
lessons. This is based upon the idea of a natural 
scientific order or sequence of topics upon which the 
systematic framework of a science rests. In our com- 
mon school course grammar and arithmetic approxi- 
mate complete sciences more nearly than the other 
studies. History has generally followed a pretty 
definite chronological order, and geography has, in 
most text-books, followed a traditional sequence 
which has been broken into of late. In reading les- 
sons, nature study, and language lessons, nothing like 
a scientific sequence of topics has even been estab- 
lished. In spelling and writing we are trying to get 
possession of symbols rather than to master a science. 
In drawing and manual training the efforts to estab- 
lish a fixed order of topics has led to an unpedagogi- 
cal routine which had to be broken up. 

Taken as a whole, the separate studies as they pre- 
sent themselves in the school course to-day, are not 
sciences. They are not systematic bodies of knowl- 
edge. Yet there is, in most studies, a partly scien- 
tific, partly pedagogical, sequence of topics which 
will greatly aid the children in the mastery of the 
separate branches. The study and mastery of arith- 
metic as a connection of closely related principles has 
not been sufficiently realized in practice. One of the 
chief difficulties in arithmetic is to get children to 
remember and apply what they have already learned. 



CORRELATION 1 69 

It may be remarked, in passing, that by far too 
much has been made of this sequence of topics in a 
study as an argument for the strict isolation of 
studies. The isolation that has long prevailed in our 
school studies has helped to fix the traditional belief 
that it had a substantial basis in this important 
sequence of topics in each study. But an analytic 
examination of the materials in our common school 
studies will show that this reputed sequence in some 
cases does not exist, and in others is capable, without 
injury, of great modification. 

Second. Correlation is chiefly concerned with the 
relation of different studies to each other, assuming 
that the studies of the school course have been prop- 
erly laid out. This is due to the fact that a great 
number of important relations actually exist between 
different branches. Reading, for example, apart from 
its great lines of study in literature, is largely a rela- 
tive study. The art of reading is merely a prepa- 
ration for a better grasp of history, geography, 
arithmetic, and all studies. Supplementary readers, 
much used, consist almost exclusively of interesting 
matter bearing upon geography, history, and nature 
study. Geography, especially, serves to establish a 
network of connections between other kinds of knowl- 
edge. It is a very important supplement to history. 
Geography lessons are full of natural science, as of 
plants, rocks, animals, climate, inventions, machines, 
races, etc. Indeed, there is scarcely a school study 



I70 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

that should not be brought into close relations to 
geography. Language lessons should receive all 
their subject-matter from history, natural science, 
geography, and literature. All the other studies 
should help to confirm and estabUsh the correct 
language forms in use. Drawing is of direct value 
nowadays in nearly all studies. It can be shown 
that there are many topics in which two or more 
studies are nearly equally concerned. The Hudson 
River, for instance, is of great interest from the 
standpoint of history, geography, geology, and litera- 
ture, and the knowledge of one is a direct support to 
the others. 

Rein says (** Erstes Schuljahr," p. 20): "Concen- 
tration requires only that one form (study) of instruc- 
tion seek and find points of contact with another 
form, the material worked over in one study must be 
recapitulated in another, and that which has been 
handled in one branch of instruction must be turned 
over to another for further elaboration. Every branch 
of study must presuppose that the other study either 
has or will do its duty in its own peculiar way, with 
the material which concerns them both. It is only 
this sort of mutual interaction between the branches 
of instruction which is demanded by genuine con- 
centration." 

An examination of the school studies themselves 
will show that the relations between different studies 
are, in very many cases, more important and signifi- 



CORRELATION I/I 

cant than the relations between the different parts of 
the same science. This does not mean that we pro- 
pose to mix and confuse the studies. We beHeve in 
the isolation, for purposes of instruction, of every 
important study, as has been already shown ; but we 
believe also that every important topic in any study 
should be seen in its natural relations to topics in 
other studies, thus binding the studies together in a 
multitude of close interrelations. It has been as- 
sumed by those opposed to a close binding together 
of all the studies, that the important relations are not 
between the different studies but between the parts 
of an/ one study. If, however, we will select any 
important topic in botany, history, geography, and 
even arithmetic, and give it a genuine pedagogical 
treatment, we shall find that the roots of such a topic 
almost invariably reach out into the other sciences 
and establish those life connections which are the 
very essence of good instruction. 

In the study of the apple tree in botany classes, on 
the principle of isolation, it has been customary to 
make an examination of the blossom and to note 
sufficient comparisons with other members of the 
rose family so as to trace it out and classify it in this 
group of plants {Rosacece). The purpose of such a 
study of botany is to get a knowledge of the leading 
classes of plants as artificially isolated from the rest 
of nature. This process of isolation is totally inade- 
quate to a pedagogical study of trees and plants. 



172 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

A proper study of the apple tree as a type of vegeta- 
tion would include such topics as follows : the apple 
seedling, grafting, the roots in relation to soil and 
moisture, the functions of the bark, sap, and woody 
fibre, the dangers to the tree from cold, frost, rabbits, 
insects, influence of sunlight and climate; compari- 
son of the apple tree with other fruit trees and plants ; 
the influence of cultivation upon apples, wild apples, 
uses of the apple. 

The treatment of the apple tree in this manner 
would involve the time of several lessons, running 
through several weeks, with observations, excursions, 
etc. It would reach deep into the subject of plant 
life and growth, and turn up new soil in every lesson. 
It is certain that questions would be raised involving 
the relation of the tree to geology, chemistry, physi- 
cal geography, physics, and zoology, and the rela- 
tions touched upon would be vital relations to these 
subjects. 

The roots draw their moisture out of the soil and 
are particularly adapted to this purpose (geology), 
but the leaves also absorb from the air and from the 
sunlight life-giving elements (physics and chemistry). 
The frost and noxious insects threaten the life and 
fruitfulness of the tree (zoology and physics). The 
tree grows and flourishes and keeps up its life's pro- 
cesses hemmed in and vitalized by this environment 
of other sciences. Moreover, genuine instruction can 
never ignore these vital causal relations which exist 



CORRELATION 



173 



between topics of different sciences. It is neces- 
sary to call attention here to the fact that such a 
topic as the apple tree, handled in the manner sug- 
gested, is a strictly botanical topic and does not pur- 
pose to teach geology, zoology, or chemistry. 

The purpose is to understand the tree and its life 
and its utilities ; but this is impossible, without tracing 
the close connections of the soil, sunlight, insect, etc., 
to the tree. A tree can no more be understood in 
its life processes when isolated as a botanical speci- 
men than a man can be appreciated in his character 
and influence isolated from society. It is apparent 
that the purely botanical treatment of the apple 
tree is largely artificial, ignoring Hfe relations, while 
emphasizing botanical classifications. 

It is hardly necessary to multiply illustrations to 
show that almost every important topic in zoology or 
botany, if treated properly, would illustrate equally 
well our proposition that the relations between topics 
in different studies are very often more important 
and significant than the relations between different 
parts of the same science. In geography and his- 
tory, I think this proposition may be maintained with 
equal force. Nearly every important topic in geog- 
raphy has its roots in history and the natural 
sciences. 

The treatment of the falls of Minneapolis, for 
example, would bring in, by way of necessary ex- 
planation, the rock strata and the canon below the 



1/4 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

falls (geology); the mills and turbine wheels (phys- 
ics); sawmills and pineries (pine trees); the early 
history (Indians and Hennepin) ; besides the strict 
geographical relations of commerce, railroads, Min- 
neapolis, etc. 

Again, we say that a mixing of studies is not 
implied, but an understanding of one topic in one 
study in its relations. In none of these cases is it 
expected that a full treatment is given to any simply 
related topic. It may be remarked here, however, 
that skilful teaching is required in the treatment of 
such topics in order to avoid the mixing and confus- 
ing of studies. This is one of the dangers necessa- 
rily incident to a proper interrelation of studies. 

Such studies as history, the natural sciences, and 
geography have everywhere these deep, vital, and 
multifarious interrelations. Reading, considered as 
masterpieces of human thought, belongs also to this 
group. But reading as an art, language lessons, 
writing, drawing, and some of arithmetic, stand in a 
different relation to the first-named studies. We 
have seen that language lessons in the first five or 
six grades have no scientific unity. They are simply 
exercises in written and oral expression for the pur- 
pose of forming right habits, with a few incidental 
rules and classes. The thought materials for lan- 
guage lessons are best drawn from history, natural 
science, or geography. Reading, language lessons, 
writing, and spelling have been sometimes called 



CORRELATION 1 75 

formal studies, as distinguished from content studies. 
Without entering into any dispute as to the rela- 
tion of form to thought, it is still clear that what are 
ordinarily recognized as the forms of reading, spell- 
ing, writing, and good English require special drills. 
Not many teachers have yet reached the conclusion 
that reading, writing, and spelling can be properly 
mastered without special drill on the forms them- 
selves. But in the common school the thought 
materials which must be brought into form are 
supplied by the other studies. This brings us to the 
extremely close relation that should subsist between 
geography, literature, history, and natural science on 
one side, and reading, writing, spelling, and language 
lessons on the other. 

One of the strongest practical arguments in favor 
of a closer relation between studies is supplied by 
this relation of language lessons to other studies. 
Language lessons, as a separate study, are justified 
on the ground of their necessity as a means of ac- 
quiring correct forms or habits of oral and written 
language. On the one side language lessons need 
to draw their thought materials from geography, 
history, or natural science, because it is necessary to 
have abundant and interesting thought matter in 
order to secure free, abundant, and varied expression. 
On the other hand, language lessons, having laid 
their stress and drill upon certain language acquire- 
ments, turn these over to the other studies by which 



176 



THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 



they are converted into permanent habit. Language 
drills will never cure the bad habits of children, 
unless the arithmetic, geography lessons, etc., insist 
upon the application and practice of tho.se things 
drilled upon in the language lesson. It is entirely 
too much to expect that language lessons can over- 
come, with their brief drills, the faults which are 
passed over uncorrected in all the other exercises of 
the school. The fundamental principle here is, that 
what is learned and drilled upon in one study is 
learned for the purpose of applying it in all other 
recitations and studies. If this is not true, the 
thing learned is not worth learning. Knowledge is 
for use, and it is hypocrisy and inconsistency to 
emphasize a thing as important in one study and 
then neglect it in all others. On this principle, 
therefore, language lessons are buttressed on two 
sides by the other studies ; they draw their invigorat- 
ing thought materials from the other studies, and they 
depend also upon the other studies, for making their 
drills finally and permanently efficient in the chil- 
dren's habits. 

Third. The relations between the school studies 
and the home life (including all the experiences of a 
child outside of school) are multitudinous, and, with 
the emphasis now placed upon apperception and 
upon child-study generally, the importance of these 
relations is much better understood. Most of a 
child's real knowledge of persons and things is 



CORRELATION 1 77 

derived from experiences outside of school. It is 
largely the business of the school to work over these 
ideas and incorporate them into school studies. In 
building up character, also, the school and home must 
work together. 

At home or among companions, perhaps unknown 
to the teacher, a boy or girl may be forming a 
habitual tendency and desire, more powerful than 
any other force in his life, and yet at variance with 
the best influence of the school. If possible the 
teacher should draw the home and school into a 
closer bond, so as to get a better grasp of the situa- 
tion and its remedy. The school will fail to leave 
an effective impress upon such a child unless it can 
get a closer hold upon the sympathies and thus neu- 
tralize an evil tendency. It must league itself with 
better home influences so as to implant its own im- 
pulses deeper in home life. How to unify home and 
school influences is one of those true and abiding 
problems of education that appeals strongly and 
sympathetically to parents and teachers. 

Fourth. Looking at the school course as a whole, 
the amount of successful correlation depends upon 
the wisdom of those who lay out the course of study 
with a view to proper correlations. When a course 
of study has been laid out upon this basis, bringing 
the great threads or cables of human knowledge into 
proper juxtaposition at the various points, we shall 
be much better able to organize and unify knowledge. 

N 



178 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

In other words, the number and variety of impor- 
tant relations between different studies which can 
be brought out in instruction, depends, to a very 
large extent, upon the grouping of the different 
studies with reference to one another in the original 
plan of the course of study. Take any one year of 
the school course, and the number of proper and 
significant relations between the studies depends 
almost wholly upon the selection of materials in the 
different studies, with a view to multiplying opportu- 
nities for close connection. If, for example, we plan 
to study in fifth grade the early history of the thir- 
teen colonies and their settlements, also the geog- 
raphy of the Atlantic states and of North America ; 
if, at the same time, we read Hawthorne's " Grand- 
father's Chair," the " Courtship of Miles Standish," 
" Hiawatha," and other related historical and literary 
matter, if the language lessons are derived from 
history, literature, and science, if the science topics 
deal with the plants, animals, and geology peculiar 
to the same geographical regions, we should have an 
equally valuable body of material and a much better 
chance to organize it. If, on the other basis, we 
study the early history of America, the geography 
of Asia and Africa, for reading take "Gulliver's 
Travels," "The Lays of Ancient Rome," and a 
Fourth Reader, and select for lessons in science, 
language, and drawing topics unrelated to each other 
and to the other studies, we may have just as good 



CORRELATION 



179 



materials but a poor chance to organize it. Would 
it be extravagant to say that a year's work properly 
planned and correlated would give ten times as many 
significant relations as a plan which ignored such a 
princijDle ? 

Fifth. Even after a good general plan is com- 
plete, the studies well selected and arranged, the 
real work of correlation consists in observing and 
fixing the relations as the facts are learned. It is 
but half the work to learn the facts. The other and 
more important half consists in understanding the 
facts by fixing the relations. This depends upon the 
skill- and thoughtfulness of the teacher in the pro- 
cesses of instruction. 

We will next discuss the series of reasons assigned 
for a better selection and organization of the school 
studies so as to secure a closer correlation in the 
details of instruction. 

I. The unity of the personality as gradually 
developed in a child by wise education is essential 
to strength of character. Ackerman says on this 
point {" Ueber Concentration," p. 20) : — 

" In behalf of character development, which is the 
ultimate aim of all educative effort, pedagogy re- 
quires of instruction that it aid in forming the unity 
of the personality, the most primitive basis of char- 
acter. In requiring that the unity of the personal- 
ity be formed, it is presupposed that this unity is 
not some original quality, but something to be first 



l80 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

developed. It remains for psychology to prove this 
and to indicate in what manner the unity of the 
personality originates. Now, psychology teaches 
that the personality, the ego, is not something 
original, but something that must be first developed, 
and is also changeable and variable. In infancy the 
ego, the personality, is consciously realized in one 
person sooner, in another later. In the different 
ages of life, also, the personality possesses a differ- 
ent content. The deeper cause for the mutual refer- 
ence of all our manifold ideas to each other and for 
their union in a single point, as it were, may be 
found in the simplicity of the soul, which constrains 
into unity all things that are not dissociated by 
hindrance or contradiction. The soul, therefore, in 
the face of the varied influences produced by con- 
tact with nature and society, is active in concentrat- 
ing its ideas, so that with mental soundness as a 
basis, the ego, once formed, in spite of all the transi- 
tions through which it may pass, still remains the 
^same." 

There is then a natural tendency of the mind to 
unify all its ideas, feelings, incentives. 

On the other hand, the knowledge and experiences 
of life are so varied and seemingly contradictory, 
that a young person, if left to himself or if sub- 
jected to a wrong schooling, will seldom work his 
way to harmony and unity. In spite of the fact 
that the soul is a simple unit and tends naturally 



CORRELATION l8l 

to unify all its contents, the common experience of 
life discovers in it unconnected and even antago- 
nistic thought and knowledge centres. People are 
sometimes painfully surprised to see how the same 
mind may be lifted by exalted sentiments and de- 
pressed by the opposite. The frequent examples 
that come to notice of men of superiority and virtue 
along certain lines, who give way to weakness and 
wrong in other directions, are sufficient evidence 
that good and evil may be systematically cultivated 
in the same character, and that instead of unity and 
harmony education may collect in the soul hetero- 
geneous and warring elements which make it a 
battle-ground for life. All such disharmony and 
contradiction lend inconsistency and weakness to 
character. Not only can incompatible lines of 
thought and of moral action become established in 
the same person, but even those studies which could 
be properly harmonized and unified by education 
may lie in the mind so disjointed and unrelated as 
to render the person awkward and helpless in spite 
of much knowledge. In unifying the various parts 
of school education, and in bringing them into close 
connection with children's other experiences, the 
school life fulfils one of its chief duties. 

An analogy may be drawn between the growth of 
knowledge in the mind and the construction of a 
building. We say that all a child's knowledge finds 
its centre and unity in the conscious self or ego. 



1 82 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

The ego has partaken of all these experiences, re- 
members them as parts of its own life, and this 
memory is the thread that binds all together in 
one personality. Now in the construction of a large 
stone or brick building we find division of labor 
and materials among stone and brick masons, hod 
carriers, plumbers, plasterers, contractors, architects, 
etc. There is a certain degree of isolation in the 
separate parts of the work ; the stone-cutters are 
busy in one place upon their materials, the brick- 
masons have their place and tools and work, the 
carpenters likewise ; the work and the materials are 
isolated for convenience. But underneath all this 
variety of materials and work is the unifying plan 
of the architect, followed out by the contractors. 
Not a man's work or materials but have their place, 
not a stroke of work done but to a specific end. 
Everything moves as regulated by the plan that 
unifies the whole, even to its smallest details. 

In this case, we may say that the principle of unifica- 
tion is fundamental, the idea of isolation incidental. 
As a child builds up the body, the complex of his 
knowledge and experience, should there be less or 
more of unity than in the construction of a build- 
ing.-* The nervous system looked upon as part of 
an organism is more closely unified than any build- 
ing. The brain, as a nervous centre, dominates the 
whole, as an absolute monarch from a throne, issuing 
orders. Now, as we venture to peep into the citadel 



CORRELATION 1 83 

of the mind itself, shall we look for isolation or for 
unification ? What is the normal condition ? What 
is the condition of power and efficiency ? Organiza- 
tion, association, and close linking together of all the 
mental resources, or isolation, separation into inacces- 
sible parts, division of resources, etc. ? 

2. If there is one dominant aim in education, then 
the school studies should be combined and focussed 
in the direction of that aim. If all the studies and 
exercises of the school should have an ethical centre, 
that is, should tend toward the strengthening of 
ethical principles as the central stronghold of a 
child's character, then closer nexus and interrelation 
are demanded. 

In discussing the general aim of education in 
Chapter I, we found the difficulty not in setting up 
the aim but rather in bringing it into close relation 
to all the other essential purposes of education. To 
make ethical ideas clear to children is not specially 
difficult, but to bring ethical ideas into vital touch 
with the various fields of knowledge, with mental 
discipline, with aesthetic sentiment in literature and 
art, and especially with conduct, is the most difficult 
and important problem in education. Clearly defined 
ethical ideas must stand in the centre of conscious- 
ness and shed their light in all directions over the 
fields of knowledge. This means, as far as possible, 
the organization of all knowledge and experience 
around ethical ideas as centres of influence. This 



1 84 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

means that the chief lines of habit in thought and 
in action must be brought into harmony with ethical 
standards. 

The greater, then, the number of clear mental 
relations of a fact to other facts in the same and 
in other studies, the more likely it is to render instant 
obedience to the will when it is needed. Such ready 
mastery of one's past experiences and accumulations 
promotes confidence and power in action. Concen- 
tration is manifestly designed to give strength and 
decision to character. But a careless education, by 
neglecting this principle, by scattering the mind's 
forces over broad fields, and by neglecting the con- 
necting roads and paths that should bind together 
the separate fields, can actually undermine force 
and decision of character. 

3. It seems hardly necessary to call attention to 
the laws of association as establishing the natural 
paths and highways of the mind's activities, tending 
always toward unity; of the fact that all study is 
a study of relations, if insight is reached ; that mental 
assimilation is association, organization of knowledge, 
synthesis, and the association by cause and effect 
which gives us the cross-roads between the sciences. 

We are not conscious of the constant dependence 
of our thinking and conversation upon the laws of 
association. It may be frequently observed in the 
familiar conversation of several persons in a com- 
pany. The simple mention of a topic will often 



CORRELATION 1 85 

suggest half a dozen things that different ones are 
prompted to say about it, and may even give direc- 
tion to the conversation for a whole evening. Now, 
if it is true that ideas are more easily remembered 
and used if associated, let us increase the associa- 
tions. Why not bind all the studies and ideas of 
a child as closely together as possible by natural 
lines of association } Why not select for reading 
lessons those materials which will throw added light 
upon contemporaneous lessons in history, botany, 
and geography ? Then if the reading lesson pre- 
sents in detail the battle of King's Mountain, take 
the p^ns to refer to this part of the history and 
put this lesson into connection with historical facts 
elsewhere learned. If a reading lesson gives a full 
description of the palm tree, its growth and use, 
what better setting could this knowledge find than 
in the geography of Northern Africa and the West 
Indies .'' 

4. Without laying any undue stress upon simple 
knowledge, we believe that a small amount of well- 
articulated knowledge is more valuable than a large 
amount of loose and fragmentary information. A 
small, disciplined police force is able to cope with 
a large, unorganized mob. 

Frank McMurry, in " Relation of Natural Science 
to Other Studies," says: — 

"The very important principle here involved is 
that the value of knowledge depends not only upon 



1 86 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

the distinctness and accuracy of the ideas, but also 
upon the closeness and extent of the relations into 
which they enter. This is a fundamental principle 
of education. It was Herbart who said, ' Only those 
thoughts come easily and frequently to the mind 
which have at some time made a strong impression 
and which possess numerous connections with other 
thoughts.' And psychology teaches that those ideas 
which take an isolated station in the mind are usually 
weak in the impression they make, and are easily 
forgotten. A fact, however important in itself, if 
learned without reference to other facts, is quite 
likely to fade quickly from the memory. It is for 
this reason that the witticisms, sayings, and scattered 
pieces of information, which we pick up here and 
there, are so soon forgotten. There is no way of 
bringing about their frequent reproduction when 
they are so disconnected, for the reproduction of 
ideas is largely governed by the law of association. 
One idea reminds us of another closely related to it ; 
this of another, etc., till a long series is produced. 
They are bound together like the links of a chain, 
and one draws another along with it just as one link 
of a chain drags another after it. A mental image 
that is not one of such a series cannot hope to come 
often to consciousness; it must as a rule sink into 
oblivion, because the usual means of caUing it forth 
are wanting. 

" It is only by associating thoughts closely that a 



CORRELATION 1 87 

person comes to possess them securely and have 
command over them. One's reproduction of ideas 
is then rapid enough to enable him to comprehend 
a situation quickly and form a judgment with some 
safety ; his knowledge is all present and ready for 
use; while, on the other hand, one whose related 
thoughts have never been firmly welded together 
reproduces slowly, and in consequence is wavering 
and undecided. His knowledge is not at his com- 
mand, and he is therefore weak." 

5. In later years, when we consider the results of 
school methods upon our own character, we can see 
the weakness of a system of education which lacks 
correlation, a weakness which shows itself in a 
lack of retentiveness and of ability to use acquired 
knowledge. We are only too frequently reminded 
of the loose and scrappy state of our acquired knowl- 
edge by the ease with which it eludes the memory 
when it is needed. To escape from this disagreeable 
consciousness in after years, we begin to spy out a 
few of the mountain peaks of memory which still 
give evidence of submerged continents. Around 
these islands we begin to collect the wreckage of 
the past and the accretions of later study and ex- 
perience. A thoughtful person naturally falls into 
the habit of collecting ideas around a few centres, 
and of holding them in place by links of association. 
In American history, for instance, it is inevitable 
that our knowledge become congested in certain 



i88 



THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 



important epochs, or around the character and life 
of a few typical persons. The same seems to be 
true also of other studies, as geography and even 
geometry. The failure to acquire proper habits of 
thinking is also exposed by the experience of practi- 
cal life. In life we are compelled to see and respect 
the causal relations between events. We must cal- 
culate the influences of the stubborn forces and facts 
around us. But in school we often have so many 
things to learn that we have no time to think. At 
least half the meaning of things lies not in them- 
selves, but in their relations and effects. Therefore, 
to get ideas without getting their significant relations 
is to encumber the mind with ill-digested material. 
A sensible man of the world has little respect for 
this kind of learning. 

One reason why knowledge is so poorly under- 
stood and remembered is because its real application 
to other branches of knowledge, whether near or 
remote, is so little observed and fixed. Looking 
back upon our school studies we often wonder what 
botany, geometry, and drawing have to do with each 
other and with our present needs. Each subject was 
so compactly stowed away on a shelf by itself that it 
is always thought of in that isolation, — like Hammer- 
fest or the Falkland Islands in geography, — out-of- 
the-way places. Are the various sciences so distinct 
and so widely separated in nature and in real life 
as they are in school ? An observant boy in the ■ 



CORRELATION 



189 



woods will notice important relations between animals 
and plants, between plants, soil, and seasons, that 
are not referred to in the text-books. In a carpenter 
shop he will observe relations of different kinds of 
wood, metals, and tools to each other that will sur- 
prise and instruct him. In the real life of the coun- 
try or town the objects and materials of knowledge, 
representing the sciences of nature and the arts of 
life, are closely jumbled together and intimately 
dependent upon each other. The very closeness of 
causal and local connections, and the lack of orderly 
arrangements shown by things in life, make it neces- 
sary in schools to classify and arrange into sciences. 
But it is a vital mistake to suppose that the knowl- 
edge is complete when classified and learned in this 
scientific form. Classification and books are but a 
faulty means of getting a clear insight into nature 
and human life or society. Knowledge should not 
only be mastered in its scientific classifications, but 
also constantly referred back to things as seen in 
practical life and closely traced out and fixed in those 
connections. The vital connections of different 
studies with each other are best known and realized 
by the study of nature and society. 

In later life we are convinced at every turn of the 
need of being able to recognize and use knowledge 
outside of its scientific connections. A lawyer finds 
many subjects closely mingled and causally related 
in his daily business which were never mentioned 



190 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

together in text-books. The ordinary run of cases 
will lead him through a kaleidoscope of natural sci- 
ence, human life, commerce, history, mathematics, 
literature, and law, not to speak of less agreeable 
things. But the same is true of a physician, mer- 
chant, or farmer, in different ways. Shall we answer 
to all this, that schools were never designed to teach 
such things .-* They belong to the professions or to 

, the school of life, etc. 

^ But it is not simply in professions and trades that 
we find this close mingling and dependence of the 
most divergent sorts of knowledge, this unscientific 
mixing of the sciences. Everywhere knowledge, 
however well classified, is one-sided and misleading, 
which does not conform to the conditions of real life. 
A wise mother in her household has a variety of 
problems to meet. From cellar to garret, from 
kitchen to library, from nursery to drawing-room, 
her good sense must adapt all sorts of knowledge to 
real conditions. In bringing up her children she 
must understand physical and mental orders and 
disorders. She must judge of foods and cooking, 
of clothing, as to taste, comfort, and durability ; of 
the exercises and employments of children, etc. 
Whether she is conscious of it or not, she must 
mingle a knowledge of chemistry, psychology, medi- 
cine, sanitation, the physics of light and air, with the 
traditional household virtues in a sort of universal solv- 
ent from which she can bring forth all good things in 



CORRELATION 



191 



their proper time and place. As Spencer says, edu- 
cation should be a preparation for complete living. 
The final test of a true mastery and correlation 
of knowledge in the mind is the ability to use it 
readily in the varied and tangled relations of actual 
experience. 

The final and conclusive reason, from the practical 
side, is that real life demands these interrelations. 
The isolation of studies is a thing not found in the 
world outside of the schoolroom and of scientific 
texts. Whether we look in the wilds of nature or in 
the midst of populous cities, we shall nowhere find 
things so beautifully ordered and classified and iso- 
lated as they are in the schoolroom and in text- 
books. Nature everywhere mixes and tangles the 
sciences. Man, in his practical arts and activities, 
does the same. Nature does not put all the 
butterflies in one field, all the birds in another, all 
the plants in another, and all the sunshine in 
another. In nature we find great life societies where 
all these forms and phases of organic life and inor- 
ganic matter are bound together by the closest and 
tightest causal bonds. The druggist in his store 
does not deal with simply one isolated science, the 
farmer must know plants and animals, weather and 
markets, machines and soils ; the physician needs 
now a little sunshine in his heart, now a little 
medicine in his knapsack. It may be a case of bone 
fracture, or of mental abnormality, with which he is 



192 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

suddenly called upon to deal. The druggist or the 
physician must first master each science in its scien- 
tific order and isolation, and there is no other road 
to mastery. But the appHcation of scientific knowl- 
edge is always in a world where things are not 
scientifically ordered, and it generally takes as long 
to learn how to apply a science as it does to learn the 
science itself. 

The great purpose of education, as generally 
admitted, is to prepare children for life. Non scholce 
sed vitce discinius. Now, if children learn only to 
recognize things in their scientific form and isola- 
tion in the schoolroom, how shall they be able to 
disentangle the actual relations of real life } Many 
of the things learned and classified in the school- 
room are not recognized when seen by children 
outside. Why should the school tear asunder and 
leave in isolation those things which in the common 
experiences of men are bound together by many 
important and vital links of connection } We repeat, 
scientific, thoroughly organized, and classified knowl- 
edge is indispensable, but it is never the goal to be 
set up for the studies of the school course. It is 
only a halfway station on the road to real knowledge 
and interpretation of life. 

The criticism certain to be raised against us is, 
that we fail to recognize the value of scientific 
knowledge. Our purpose, however, is not to ques- 
tion its value, but to discover its true importance 



CORRELATION 1 93 

and to lay proper stress upon the application and 
use of knowledge. It goes without saying, that a 
large share of the knowledge gained in schools 
finds no application in life. The reason for this 
is, not so much that the knowledge gained is worth- 
less, as that it has not been organized and thought 
out in those relations that correspond to the usual 
conditions of life. Knowledge is power only when 
it can be turned to interpretative use, not simply in the 
class room but under the conditions and pressure of 
life's experience. A close organization and practi- 
cal interrelation of all the phases of school knowl- 
edge and of life experience is the only thing that 
can give a person a ready command of his re- 
sources. 

Again, the reduction of different kinds of knowl- 
edge to scientific system in separate studies must 
always be looked upon as simply a means to an 
end. The great end in view in every study is to 
get a better understanding of the world of men 
and things around us. 

6. Science itself, however, is related or classified 
knowledge. As already shown, it is the solid basis 
for the sequence of topics in those subjects that 
admit of scientific grouping and arrangement. 
There is no conflict between plans of correlation 
and proper scientific classifications ; on the contrary, 
they are one and the same thing. It was only the 
narrow and exclusive grouping of the sciences, in 
o 



194 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

total isolation from one another, that tended to 
weaken correlation. 

In the last few years the scientists themselves have 
taken a great step in advance by abandoning the 
narrow and strict classifications of a generation ago, 
and by treating each topic broadly in its relations to 
other sciences and studies. It is no longer sufficient 
to classify a tree or plant in a system, but its adapta- 
tion to its environment, its relations to soil, sunlight, 
insects, climate, its use or damage to man, its evolu- 
tion, etc., must be traced out. We hear much of the 
laws which govern life groups and societies in nature, 
in their mutual relations, involving all the sciences 
to some extent in a single topic. The scientists 
themselves have broken over the narrow, scientific 
boundaries which hindered them from tracing out the 
deeper laws of nature, which are correlations of the 
sciences, and the schoolmaster can take the hint and 
abandon his antiquated theory of purely isolated 
sciences. 

The historian is no longer satisfied to follow a nar- 
row line of political history. He must see the rela- 
tions of history to scientific progress, to literature, to 
social customs ; to geography, physiography, to eco- 
nomic laws, to education and religion, and to many 
other forces in society. It is only by tracing out these 
wide correlations that any important topic nowadays 
can be understood. 

7. The multiplication of studies in the common 



CORRELATION I 95 

schools in recent years will soon compel us to pay 
more attention to correlation or the mutual relation 
of knowledges. There is a resistless tendency to 
convert the course of studies into an encyclopaedia of 
knowledge. To perceive this it is only necessary to 
note the new studies incorporated into the public 
school within a generation. In spite of all that has 
been said by educational reformers against making 
the acquisition of knowledge the basis of education, 
the range and variety of studies have been greatly 
extended and chiefly through the influence of the 
reformers. This expansive movement appears in 
schools of all grades. The secondary and fitting 
schools and the universities have spread their branch 
likewise over a much wider area of studies. We are 
in the full sweep of this movement along the whole 
line, and it has not yet reached its flood. 

The simplicity of the old course, both in the com- 
mon school and in higher institutions, is in marked 
contrast to the present multiplicity. It was a narrow 
current in which education used to run, but it was 
deep and strong. Strong characters have often been 
developed by a narrow and rigid training along a 
single line of duty, as is shown in a case of the Jesuits, 
the Humanists, and the more recent devotees of natu- 
ral science. 

As contrasted with this, the most striking feature 
of our pubHc schools now is their shallow and super- 
ficial work. It is probable that the teaching in lower 



196 TPIE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

grades is better than ever before, but as the tasks 
accumulate in the higher grades there is a great 
amount of smattering. The prospect is, however, 
that this disease will grow worse before a remedy can 
be applied. The first attempt to cultivate broader 
and more varied fields of knowledge in the common 
school must necessarily exhibit a shallow result. 
Teachers are not famihar with the new subjects, 
methods are not developed, and the proper adjust- 
ments of the studies to each other are neglected. 
No one who is at all familiar with our present status 
will claim that drawing, natural science, geography, 
and language are yet properly adjusted to each other. 
The task is a difficult one, but it is being grappled 
with by many earnest teachers. 

It is obvious that the first serious effort to remedy 
this shallowness will be made by deepening and in- 
tensifying the culture of the new fields. The knowl- 
edge of each subject must be made as complete and 
detailed as possible. Well-qualified teachers and 
specialists will of course accomplish the most. They 
will zealously try to teach all the important things in 
each branch of study. But where is the limit } The 
capacity of children. And it will not be long before 
philanthropists, physicians, reformers, and all the 
friends of mankind will call a decisive halt. Children 
were not born simply to be stuffed with knowledge. 

It appears, therefore, that we must steer between 
Scylla and Charybdis, or that we are in a first-class 



CORRELATION 1 97 

educational dilemma. This conviction is strengthened 
by the reflection that there is no escape from fairly 
facing the situation. Having once put our hand to 
the plough, we cannot look back. The common school 
course has greatly expanded in recent years, and there 
is no probability that it will ever contract. It has 
expanded in response to proper universal educational 
demands. For we may fairly believe that most of 
the studies recently incorporated into the school 
course are essential elements in the education of 
every child that is to grow up and take a due share 
in our society. It is too late to sound the retreat. 
The educational reformers have battled stoutly for 
three hundred years for just the course of study that 
we are now beginning to accept. The edict cannot 
be revoked, that every child is entitled to a har- 
monious and equable development of all its human 
powers, or, as Herbart calls it, a harmonious culture of 
many-sided interests. The nature of every child im- 
peratively demands such broad and liberal culture, 
and the varied duties and responsibilities of the citi- 
zen make it a practical necessity. No narrow, one- 
sided culture will ever equip a child to act a just part 
in the complex social, political, and industrial society 
of our time. But the demand for depth of knowl- 
edge is just as imperative as that for comprehen- 
siveness. 

It is clear that two serious dangers threaten the 
quality of our education : first, loose and shallow 



198 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

knowledge ; second, overloading with encyclopaedic 
knowledge. What can correlation do to remedy 
the one and check the other? The cure for these 
two evils will be found in so adjusting the studies to 
each other, in so building them into each other, as to 
secure a mutual support. The study of a topic not 
only as it is affected by others in the same subject, 
but also by facts and principles in other studies, is an 
antidote against superficial learning. In tracing these 
causal relations, in observing the resemblances and 
analogies, the interdependence of studies, as geogra- 
phy, history, and natural science, a thoughtfulness 
and clearness of insight are engendered quite con- 
trary to loose and shallow study. 

Correlation at once discards the idea of ency- 
clopaedic knowledge as an aim of school education. 
It puts a higher estimate upon related ideas and a 
lower one upon that of complete or encyclopaedic 
information. All the cardinal branches of education 
indeed shall be taught in the school, but only the 
essential, the typical, will be selected, and an ex- 
haustive knowledge of any subject is out of the ques- 
tion. Correlation will put a constant check upon 
over-accumulation of facts, and will rather seek to 
strengthen an idea by association with familiar things 
than to add a new fact to it. No matter how thorough 
and enthusiastic a specialist one may be, he is called 
upon to curtail the quantity of his subject and bring 
it into proper dependence upon other studies. 



CORRELATION Iqq 

There is a growing conviction among teachers that 
we need a closer articulation of studies with one 
another. The expansion of the school course over 
new fields of knowledge and the multiplication of 
studies compel us to seek for a simplification of the 
course. A hundred years ago, yes, even fifty years 
ago, it was thought that the extension of our territory 
and government to the present limits would be 
impossible. It was plainly stated that one govern- 
ment could never hold together people so widely 
separated. Mr. Fiske, in "The Critical Period of 
American History," p. 60, says : — 

" Even with all other conditions favorable, it is 
doubtful if the American Union could have been 
preserved to the present time without the railroad. 
Railroads and telegraphs have made our vast country, 
both for political and for social purposes, more snug 
and compact than little Switzerland was in the Middle 
Ages or New England a century ago." 

The analogy between the realm of government and 
of knowledge is not at all complete, but it suggests 
at least the change which is imperatively called for 
in education. In education as well as in commerce 
there must be trunk lines of thought which bring the 
will as monarch of the mind into close communication 
with all the resources of knowledge and experience. 
Indeed, in the mind of a child or an adult there is 
much stronger necessity for centralization than in 
the government and commerce of a country. The 



200 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

will should be an undisputed monarch of the whole 
mental life. It is the one centre where all lines of 
communication meet. London is not so perfect a 
centre for the commerce and finance of England as is 
the conscious ego for all its forms of experience. 

8. On account of the multiplication of studies in 
the school course and the consequent tendency to 
shallowness, it is necessary to employ all the best 
means for economizing time. There are three im- 
portant ways in which the correlation of studies pro- 
duces economy of effort. 

First. In the great central studies, such as history, 
geography, science, and reading, the tracing of relations 
from one study into another gives an excellent review, 
incidentally, of those studies into which the relations 
are traced. In reading Holmes's " Grandmother's 
Story of Bunker Hill " in the regular reading work, 
there is an excellent review of the battle of Bunker 
Hill in history and of the geography of Boston. A 
like advantage is found in reading " The Courtship of 
Miles Standish," ''The Lays of Ancient Rome," "The 
Lady of the Lake " " Marmion," " Hiawatha," the 
stories of Ulysses, of William Tell, " Evangeline," and 
many other excellent poems and stories used in our 
reading work. In studying the geography of the 
Rhine River, there is an incidental review of topics in 
history and literature suggested by the great fortresses, 
ruined castles, Gothic churches, cities, and monuments. 
A similar statement may be made about most of the 



CORRELATION 20I 

important topics in geography. The pecuUar advan- 
tage of such incidental reviews is that they present 
these old topics, in other studies, from a new and 
interesting point of view. The incidental reviews 
produce a decided economy by diminishing the 
amount of time necessary in the ordinary reviews of 
those studies. At the same time, by increasing the 
important connections between topics, they greatly 
aid the memory in holding all the facts together. 

Second. In the important series of secondary 
studies, such as language lessons, drawing, spelling, 
writing, and some phases of arithmetic and reading, 
there is a great economy of time in correlating these 
studies as closely as possible with the central studies, 
history, geography, science, and literature. Lan- 
guage lessons should derive their topics almost 
exclusively from the real studies just named. A 
language lesson based upon the study of the 
Rhine River in geography is much better than 
one based upon nothing in particular, or upon some 
outside topic having no other relation to the present 
work of the school. Such a correlated lesson gives 
much more interesting thought content to the lan- 
guage lesson and is, at the same time, the best 
possible review of the geography. The drawing 
lessons in a similar way are of great value in giving a 
more definite expression to many topics in history, 
science, and geography. It is the most natural thing 
in the world for children to desire to draw primitive 



202 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

houses, forts, boats, ships, buildings, churches, tools, 
machines, industrial processes, and striking his- 
torical scenes in which they have become interested 
through other studies. These topics, derived from 
other studies, furnish the best impulse and motive to the 
drawing lessons, and at the same time give a clearness 
and sharp review which are of great value to the 
other studies. There are also many lessons in geog- 
raphy, history, and science where arithmetical com- 
putations are necessary. The supplementary readers 
in history, geography, and science are proofs of the 
economy which can be easily practised in these studies. 
In music, patriotic and religious songs, also those 
based upon human activities, natural scenery, history, 
and literature, may greatly reenforce leading ideas in 
those studies. 

Third. In some cases the correlation is so close 
and the dependence of one study upon another so 
complete that certain studies have been partly or 
wholly eliminated from the school course as inde- 
pendent studies. This is best illustrated by what 
used to be known as object lessons, which for many 
years constituted an independent branch of study in 
schools. It was gradually discovered that all studies 
need to be objectively illustrated, and therefore the 
different phases of object study have been absorbed 
into the various studies where they belong. 

In many schools the exercises in drawing and 
writing have been largely incorporated into the writ- 



CORRELATION 



203 



ten work necessary in the other studies. Many of 
the best educators think that there should be no 
independent drawing lessons below the fourth or the 
fifth grade. The drawing work should be wholly 
subordinated in the lower grades to the expression 
of thought in the chief studies. In quite a number 
of progressive schools number work has been dropped 
as an independent study in the first two years, its 
place being taken by the correlated number exercises 
in constructive work, in weather study, and in other 
phases of nature study. 

Manual training and constructive work have been 
pressing their way into the schools, more recently, in 
all the grades from the primary through the high 
school. Reasoning by the analogy of the object 
lessons, there seem to be good reasons for believing 
that manual training will lose its place as an inde- 
pendent study below the high school. In all the 
important studies there is more or less demand for 
motor activity, for drawing, making and constructing 
the objects, or their models, which become interesting 
centres of study. This power to realize the objects 
of study in some concrete and objective form is vital 
to the best study. It sets children to work in the 
final stage of educative effort, the execution of thought 
in action and creative effort. It may be, therefore, 
that in connection with manual training and con- 
structive exercises we shall have not a new study or 
group of studies, but a deeper stimulation to a strong 



204 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

and vital grasp of the old studies. This will be a 
double economy. 

Art studies are also pushing their way into the 
schools and are demanding a good deal of attention 
from progressive teachers, for they will be of the 
very greatest value in setting before children the 
most worthy and stimulating objects of thought. But 
their greatest value will be found in the enrichment 
they bring to the old studies. Like manual training 
they should be absorbed into the present body of school 
studies. 

In the three important ways just described and 
illustrated the proper correlation of studies is destined 
to bring about a great simplification of the school 
course and a most encouraging economy of time and 
effort. The problem of correlation is difficult and 
many-sided, but it promises in the end great relief to 
overburdened teachers and pupils. 

Such an examination of the mutual relations and 
courtesies between studies as is outlined above, may 
also discover to us the fact that we are now uncon- 
sciously or thoughtlessly duplicating the work of 
studies to a surprising extent. We make two sets 
of drawing lessons where one set would answer the 
purpose much better. By isolating the language 
lessons and by cutting them off from communication 
with history, geography, and natural science, we get 
several sets of language lessons, one in language 
proper, and others in geography, history, etc., for it 



CORRELATION 205 

is necessary to use correct language, and to drill for 
it, if needed, in all studies. The drills, however, being 
distributed over a larger area of subjects, will be much 
less effective and will require more time. 

The same scattering of effort and waste of time is 
noticed also in the spelling and writing. If manual 
training is erected into an independent study, we have 
there also the double series of manual exercises, one 
in the manual training proper, unrelated to the other 
studies, and the other in the series of constructions 
called for in geography, history, and natural science. 

Moreover, by excluding an interesting subject-mat- 
ter derived from other studies, the interest and mental 
life awakened by language lessons, drawing, etc., are 
reduced to a minimum ; the work is sluggish and life- 
less, and time is squandered. 

Is it within the range of healthy child-thought to 
associate ideas in different studies and to see the 
value of the connections ? Have children the capac- 
ity and the disposition to relate ideas, to think } The 
answer to this question lies with those who know 
and appreciate children best, who have watched 
them judiciously in their studies and voluntary em- 
ployments. In the decision of this question teachers 
can afford to weigh their own experience as well as 
the testimony of authorities. 

Take children from intermediate or grammar grades, 
what kind of study in geography or history, or natu- 
ral science, puts them to their best thinking and self- 



206 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

activity ? Are they predominantly receptive, simply 
accumulating the materials of thought for later use, 
or are children thinkers ? There is a strong disposi- 
tion now among some teachers and among psycholo- 
gists to look upon boys and girls as exhibiting from 
childhood up all the essential phases of mental activ- 
ity. There is very little doubt, for example, that 
children do some excellent reasoning and thinking 
before they enter school at six. It is a conviction 
with many that school children are not only capable 
of exercising a rational judgment and thought power, 
but that the very life of instruction depends prima- 
rily upon this thought-stimulating process. Simply to 
learn and stow away facts is a dull and burdensome 
employment, but to look for reasons, to see and under- 
stand necessary connections, to discover resemblances, 
important associations, and laws, is the very relish of 
knowledge-gaining. Intelligent boys and girls are 
no more satisfied with simply learning facts than in- 
telligent men and women are. Children learn to 
think, under normal conditions, about as fast as they 
accumulate the materials of thought. 

And yet in such a discussion dogmatism is all out 
of place, for the world can no longer be imposed 
upon by anybody's dogmas. The children are ever 
present with us. Thousands of teachers and parents 
are at work upon the materials at first hand, and 
every thoughtful teacher must in the end decide the 
question for himself. 



CORRELATION 20/ 

Are teachers undertaking too much when they 
assume to train children to think? At the best, 
teachers can only supply the favorable conditions 
for mental activity in children. Those opposed to 
the emphasis we place upon correlation and concen- 
tration stand in fear of an artificial effort of teachers 
to portion out and mingle the ingredients of study. 
But we do not propose to do the child's thinking for 
him. He must eat his own food and digest it accord- 
ing to his own capacity. The process by which a child 
accumulates and assimilates the materials of knowl- 
edge must be his own process of thought. 

The function of the teacher is to provide the suit- 
able materials and to render the conditions as favor- 
able as possible to the child's exercise of his own 
mental forces. The teacher is, at best, only a care- 
ful, judicious supervisor of a natural process. And 
yet it will be generally acknowledged that the kind 
of thinking done by the children will depend chiefly 
upon the teacher's plan of arranging and handling 
the materials. The purpose of the teacher's plan 
and method is to engender self-activity, to throw a 
child upon his own resources in accumulating and 
interpreting knowledge and experience. These 
phrases about self-activity are easy and cheap. 
But what do they stand for in our work with chil- 
dren } How are they to become open-eyed, clear- 
headed, and self-reliant as they meet and absorb the 
experiences of school and home } Is the education 



208 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

of children chiefly dogmatic on the part of teachers 
and receptive on the part of children, or is it a pro- 
cess of thought stimulation and invigorating self- 
activity ? Thinking relations between studies, the 
broader survey of every topic handled in every study 
in all its relations north and south, east and west, up 
and down — all this means more self-activity, more 
rational self-help, or it means nothing. 

Lessing, in his tractate on the use of the fable, 
says : — 

" Why is it in all sciences and arts there is such a 
dearth of inventive and self-reHant thinkers ? This 
question is best answered with another. Why are 
we not better educated ? God gives us a soul, but 
genius (clear thinking) we must acquire through edu- 
cation. A boy whose entire mental powers are devel- 
oped and broadened out in due proportion, who is 
taught rapidly to compare all that he adds to-day to 
his little store of knowledge with what he already 
learned yesterday, and is on the lookout to see 
whether by this comparison he does not arrive at 
things for himself not told him before ; who is per- 
mitted constantly to glance over from one science 
into another; who is taught to rise just as easily from 
the particular to the general, as to descend from the 
general to the particular — this boy will become a 
genius (a clear thinker) or one cannot become any- 
thing at all in this world." 

This passage from Lessing is an emphatic demand 



CORRELATION 209 

for the exercise of thought power in children. It is 
an unequivocal and absolute call for mental alertness 
and originality and many-sided survey of knowledge 
as fast as it accumulates. So far from being satisfied 
with mere inventories in elementary instruction, it 
leaps at once to the more important demand for 
elaboration of knowledge in self-active effort. It is 
a plain demand for constant thoughtfulness and sur- 
vey, glancing ever from study to study, from school 
to life, from particular to general, and vice versa. It 
calls for intelligent assimilation of ideas at every 
stage of progress. 

Historically considered, the principle of concentra- 
tion has been advocated and emphasized by many 
writers and teachers. The most striking and decided 
attempt to apply it was made by Jacotot in the first 
quarter of the nineteenth century, and had great 
success in France. Mr. Joseph Payne, in interpret- 
ing Jacotot {'* Lectures on the Science and Art of 
Education," p. 339), lays down as his main precept, 
" Learn something thoroughly and refer everything 
else to it." He emphasized above everything else 
clearness of insight and connection between the parts 
of knowledge. It was principally applied to the 
study of languages, and called for perfect memoriz- 
ing by incessant repetition and rigid questioning by 
the teacher. The purpose was to insure perfect 
understanding, in the first instance, of new facts 
acquired; and secondly, firm association with all 



2IO THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

previous knowledge. Jacotot and his disciples 
reached notable results by a heroic and consistent 
application of this principle, and some of our present 
methods in language are based upon it. But on the 
whole, the principle was only partially and mechani- 
cally applied. Its aim was primarily intellectual, 
even linguistic, not moral. There was no philo- 
sophical effort made to determine the relative value 
of studies and thus find out what study or series of 
studies best deserved to take the leading place in the 
school course. The importance of interest, as a 
means of rousing mental vigor and as a criterion for 
selecting concentrating materials suited to children 
at different ages, was overlooked. 

A kind of concentration has long been practised 
in Germany, and to a considerable extent in our own 
schools, which is known as the concentric cjrcles. 

In our schools it is illustrated by the treatment of 
geography, grammar, and history. In beginning the 
study of geography in the third or fourth grade it 
has been customary to outline the whole science in 
the first primary book. The earth as a whole and 
its daily and yearly motion, the chief continents and 
oceans, the general geographical notions, mountain, 
lake, river, etc., are briefly treated by definition and 
illustration. Having completed this general frame- 
work of geographical knowledge during the first 
year, the second year, or at least the second book, 
takes up the same round of topics again and enters 



CORRELATION 2 1 1 

into a somewhat fuller treatment of continents, coun- 
tries, states, and political divisions. The last two 
years of the common school may be spent upon a 
large, complete geography, which, with larger, fuller 
maps and more names, gives also a more detailed 
account of cities, products, climate, political divisions, 
and commerce. Finally, physical geography is per- 
mitted to spread over much the same ground from a 
natural science standpoint, giving many additional 
and interesting facts and laws concerning zones, 
volcanoes, ocean beds and currents, atmospheric phe- 
nomena, geologic history, etc. The same earth, the 
same lands and oceans, furnish the outline in each 
case, and we travel over the same ground three or 
four times successively, each time adding new facts to 
the original nucleus. There is an old proverb that 
" repetition is the mother of studies," and here we 
have a systematic plan for repetition, extending 
through the school course, with the advantage of 
new and interesting facts to add to the grist each 
time it is sent through the mill. It is an attractive 
plan at first sight, but if we appeal to experience, 
are we not reminded rather that it was dull repetition 
of names, boundaries, map questions, location of 
places, etc., and after all not much detailed knowl- 
edge was gained, even in the higher grades ? Again, 
is it not contrary to reason to begin with definitions 
and general notions in the lower grades and end up 
with the interesting and concrete in the higher ? 



212 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

In the language lessons and grammar it has been 
customary to learn the kinds of sentence and the 
parts of speech in a simple form in the third and 
fourth grades, and in each succeeding year to review 
these topics, gradually enlarging and expanding the 
definitions, inflections, and constructions into a fuller 
etymology and syntax. In the United States history 
we are beginning to adopt a similar plan of repeti- 
tions, and the frequent reviews in arithmetic are de- 
signed to make good the lack of thoroughness and 
mastery which should characterize each successive 
grade of work. The course of religious instruction 
given in European schools is based upon the same 
reiteration year by year of essential religious ideas. 
The whole plan, as illustrated by different studies, is 
based upon a successive enlargement of a subject in 
concentric circles, with the implied constant repeti- 
tion and strengthening of leading ideas. A frame- 
work of important notions in each branch is kept 
before the mind year after year, repeated, explained, 
and enlarged, with faith in a constantly increasing 
depth of meaning. There is no doubt that under 
good teaching the principle of the concentric circles 
produces some excellent fruits, a mastery of the sub- 
ject, and a concentration of ideas within the limits 
of a single study. 

The disciples of Herbart, while admitting the 
merits of the concentric circles, have subjected the 
plan to a severe criticism. They say it begins with 



CORRELATION 213 

general and abstract notions and puts off the inter- 
esting details to the later years, while any correct 
method with children will take the interesting particu- 
lars first, will collect abundant concrete materials, and 
by a gradual process of comparison and induction 
reach the general principles and concepts at the close. 
It inevitably leads to a dull and mechanical repeti- 
tion instead of cultivating an interesting comparison 
of new and old and a thoughtful retrospect. It is a 
clumsy and distorted application of the principle of 
apperception, of going from the known to the un- 
known. Instead of marching forward into new fields 
of knowledge with a proper basis of supplies in con- 
quered fields, it gleans again and again in fields 
already harvested. For this reason it destroys a 
proper interest by hashing up the same old ideas year 
after year. Finally, the concentric circles are not 
even designed to bring the different school studies 
into relation to each other. At best they contribute 
to a more thorough mastery of each study. They 
leave the separate branches of the course isolated 
and unconnected, an aggregation of unrelated thought 
complexes. True correlation should leave them an 
organic whole of intimate knowledge-relations, con- 
ducing to strength and unity of character. 



CHAPTER V 

INDUCTION 

We are now prepared to inquire into the mind's 
method of approach to any and all subjects. We 
have considered the aim of education, the value of 
different subjects as helping toward that aim, the 
natural interests which give zest to studies, and finally 
the general plan of combining and relating topics so 
as to bring about unity of purpose and unity of mat- 
ter in the mind. As a child enters upon the work 
of acquisition are there any regulatives to guide the 
process of learning ? 

Induction, or the concept-bearing process, shows 
the tendency of our minds to advance from the inspec- 
tion of particular objects and actions to the under- 
standing of general notions or concepts. The study 
and analysis of this process casts us forthwith into 
the midst of psychology, and calls for a knowledge 
of that succession and network of mental activities 
discussed in all the psychologies : sensation, discrimi- 
nation, perception, analysis and synthesis, compari- 
son, judgment, generalization or concept, reasoning. 
An inquiry into these mental activities, which are 

214 



INDUCTION 2 1 5 

among the most important in psychology, is necessary 
as a basis of induction and of general method. 

But even the more profound study of psychology 
does not necessarily give insight into correct methods 
of teaching. Many great psychologists have had 
little or no interest in teaching. Even eminent spe- 
cialists in electricity and chemistry have not often 
been those to draw the immediate practical benefit 
from their studies. The application of psychology 
to the work of instruction constitutes a distinct field 
of inquiry and experiment. The output of the best 
experimental thinking in this direction may be called 
pedagogy. 

The process of induction or concept-building leads 
the mind, as above indicated, through a series of dif- 
ferent acts. We may first observe how far the mind 
is naturally inclined to follow this process, and 
whether it is a mark of healthy mental action in chil- 
dren and in adults. Later, we may examine more 
closely the successive stages in the process itself. 

To get at the natural process it is well to observe 
first the action of a child's mind. By analyzing a 
simple case of a farmer's child we may trace the men- 
tal steps in forming a general notion. So long as it 
has seen no barn except that on its father's farm, the 
word "barn" means to it only that particular object. 
But when it discovers that one of the neighbors has a 
similar building called a barn, it learns to put these 
different objects under one head, and the general 



2l6 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

notion '* barn " as a building for horses, cattle, and feed 
gradually rises in the mind. Long before the child 
is six years old (school age) it may have seen enough 
of such barns for the general notion to be distinctly 
formed. By observing the different objects, by com- 
paring and grouping similar things together, it has 
formed a general notion in a regular process of in- 
duction, and that without any help from teachers. 

At two and three years of age, or as soon as a child 
begins to recognize and name new objects (because 
of their resemblance to things previously seen) this 
tendency to concept-building is manifest. Another 
illustration : The child has seen the family horse sev- 
eral times, till the word "horse" becomes associated 
with that animal. While out walking it sees another 
horse, and pointing its finger says " horse." The 
memory of the first horse and the similarity calls 
forth the natural conclusion that this is a horse, 
though it may not be able to formulate the sentence. 
More horses are seen and compared, till the word 
becomes the name of a whole class of animals. By a 
gradual process of observation, comparison, and judg- 
ment the word ** horse " comes to stand for a large 
group of objects in Nature. 

A child's mind is naturally very active in detecting 
resemblances and in grouping similar objects together. 
It notices that there are certain people called "women," 
others called " men " ; that certain animals are called 
" sheep," others " cattle." One class of objects receives 



INDUCTION 



217 



the name " book," another " stove," etc. The work of 
observing, comparing, and classifying is a perpetual 
operation in the child's active moods. In this way 
what may appear at first as an interminable confusion 
or blur of objects in Nature begins to fall into groups 
and classes with appropriate names. It is the child's 
own way of bringing order out of the apparent chaos 
of his surroundings. All this process of classification 
is natural and nearly unconscious, and results in a 
better understanding and interpretation of the things 
around him. 

Observe next the work of an adult, and how he in- 
creases and arranges his knowledge. If he is an 
incipient dry-goods merchant, he learns by sight and 
touch to detect the quality of goods. He compares 
and classifies his experiences and becomes in time an 
expert in judging textile fabrics. On the other hand, 
he becomes acquainted by personal contact with vari- 
ous customers, and learns how to classify and judge 
them both as buyers and as debtors. 

If a botanist finds a new plant, he examines its 
stem, leaves, root, flower, seed, and environment. 
While entering into these details he is also comparing 
it with familiar classes of plants. Finally, he is not 
satisfied till he can definitely locate it in his previous 
system. With every new plant that he discovers he 
travels over the whole road from the individual par- 
ticulars to the general classes of his whole system. 
The merchant and the scientist follow out with pains- 



2l8 



THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 



taking care and industry the same course which was 
involuntarily taken by the child ; namely, observation 
of particulars, comparing, and grouping into classes. 
The same habit of mind may be observed in all 
people who are growing knowledge-ward and who 
possess any thoughtful instincts. In building up 
concepts, especially with the adult, induction is con- 
stantly mingled with deduction. As fast as general 
notions are formed they are used to interpret new 
objects. As the amount of this organized and classi- 
fied knowledge increases, we reason more and more 
deductively. 

In acquiring knowledge along the line of induction, 
we are on the road to the solution of the puzzle that 
Nature puts to the child. To every infant, indeed, 
the world is an enormous riddle or puzzle, whose 
parts lie in fragments about him, waiting the opera- 
tion of his curious and inventive mind toward the 
reconstruction of the whole. Endless variety and 
complexity confront us all in the beginning. There 
is indeed an order and classification of things in Na- 
ture, but it does not appear on the surface, and for 
centuries men remained ignorant of the underlying 
harmony. Nature is full of valuable secrets, but they 
lie concealed from the careless eye. They are to be 
detected by prying deeper into individual facts, by 
putting a thing here and a thing there together, 
by pondering on the relationship of things to each 
other in their nature, appearance, and cause. It is a 



INDUCTION 219 

remarkable fact that we not only increase knowledge 
best by analyzing, comparing, and classifying objects, 
experience, and phenomena, — even into old age, — 
but that the deeper we penetrate into the individual 
qualities and inner nature of objects, the more we 
extend and classify our information, the simpler all 
the operations of Nature become to our understand- 
ing. The surprising simplicity and unity of Nature 
in her varied phenomena is one of the mature prod- 
ucts of scientific study. The most scientific thinker, 
then, is only trying to reduce to a simple explanation 
the same puzzle which confronted the infant in its 
cradle. The problem is the same and the method 
similar. 

It is plain that the process of classifying objects 
and phenomena in Nature and in society is the begin- 
ning of scientific knowledge. A child begins to learn 
as soon as it notices the resemblances in things and 
arranges them into groups. It will appear later that 
the mind does not follow a strictly logical method in 
gaining its groups, that it falls into natural errors 
and misconceptions ; but in spite of these eccentric 
movements, the general trend is toward classifications 
and toward the language symbols that express them. 
In this power to associate, classify, and symbolize 
the products of experience in words is seen the 
marked difference between man and the animals. 
The latter have Httle power to compare and gen- 
eralize, that is, to think. On a still higher plane, the 



220 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

difference between a careless, loose observer and a 
well-trained scientific thinker is largely a difference 
in accuracy, in inductive and deductive processes. 

The important thing for the teacher to determine 
is whether this inductive or concept-building tendency 
furnishes any solid ground upon which to base the 
work of instruction. Admitting that it is a natural 
process, common to both old and young in acquiring 
knowledge, perhaps it can be neglected because it 
will take care of itself. If it is self-active, needing 
no artificial stimulus, let it alone. On the contrary, 
if in a healthy pursuit of knowledge, it brings the 
varied mental powers into a natural sequence where 
they will strengthen and support one another, it 
should be studied and used by teachers. It would 
be very commonplace to say that each of the faculties 
or activities involved in the induction process should 
be disciplined and strengthened by school studies. 
There is but little difference of opinion on this sub- 
ject, though some would lay more stress upon sense 
training, some on memory, some on reasoning. The 
ground for this general conviction is the notorious 
fact that with children every one of these acts is per- 
formed in a faulty and superficial manner. The 
observations of children are very careless and unreli- 
able. Even adults are extremely negligent and inaccu- 
rate in their observations of natural objects, persons, 
and phenomena. But the mental powers brought to 
bear in observation are simple and elementary, i The 



INDUCTION 221 

exercise of higher mental powers, such as analysis, 
comparison, judgment, and reasoning, is prone to be 
still more accidental and erroneous. 
I Acknowledging, then, the necessity for training all 
these powers, how can it best be done ? Not by 
delegating to each study the cultivation of one kind 
or set of mental activities, but by observing that the 
same general process underlies the acquisition of 
knowledge in each subject, and that all the kinds of 
mental life are brought into action in nearly every 
study. In short, the inductive process is a natural 
highway of human thought in every line of study, 
bringing all the mental forces into an orderly, succes- 
sive, healthful activity. We may yet discover that 
the inductive process not only gives the key to an 
interesting method of mastering different branches of 
knowledge, but in developing mental activity it brings 
the various mental powers into a strong natural 
sequence. One of the great ends of intellectual 
culture is gradually to transform this careless, un- 
conscious, inductive tendency in children into the 
painstaking and exact scrutiny of the student, and 
later of the specialist. 

Although the inductive process is a common high- 
way of thought in all stages of intellectual growth 
from childhood to maturity, certain parts of the road 
are much more frequently travelled in childhood, and 
still others in youth and maturity. It is the work of 
pedagogy to adapt its materials to these changing 



222 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

phases of soul life in children. In the analysis of 
the inductive and deductive processes we desire to 
come at the solution of this problem. 

Considered as a whole, there is a simple phase of 
the inductive process which is best explained by the 
terms " absorption " and '* reflection." It appears in 
the study of simple as well as of complex objects, and 
indicates clearly the fundamental rhythm of the mind 
in acquiring and elaborating its knowledge. This 
action of the mind is a shuttle-like movement, a con- 
stant running back and forth between two extremes, 
absorption and reflection. We will test this statement 
upon examples. When we are in the mood for learn- 
ing, let some new object, a saw-mill, attract the atten- 
tion. A quick general glance at the place and its 
surroundings tells us what it is. Now trace the 
operation of the mill as it draws up the logs singly 
from the rafts lying on the margin of the river and 
converts them into lumber. You observe first how 
the logs are carried up an inclined slide by means of 
an endless chain and hooks, into the mill. You ex- 
amine this first piece of machinery and notice its 
mode of action. As the logs enter the upper story 
of the mill, they are thrown by heavy levers to either 
side and roll down toward the saws. Here is another 
piece of machinery in its proper place. Having been 
stripped of the loose pieces of bark, the logs are 
grasped by another set of iron hands, lifted firmly to 
the carriage and passed to the circular or band saw, 



INDUCTION 223 

which takes off the side slabs and squares them for 
the gang-saw. The squared logs are then carried 
along over rollers and collected before the gang- 
saws. From two to four of them are clasped firmly 
together and then forced up against the teeth of the 
parallel group of saws, issuing from them as a batch 
of lumber. The boards are then passed on to a set 
of men at small circular saws, by whom they are 
sorted and the edges trimmed, while still others with 
trucks carry them to the yard for stacking. 

Take note of the operation of the mind as it passes 
from one part of the machinery to another. Each 
part is first examined by itself to get its construction 
and method. Then its relation to what precedes and 
what follows is noted. Finally, in review, you survey 
the whole process in its successive stages, and under- 
stand each part and its relation to the whole and to 
the purpose of the mill. We might call this an analy- 
sis and synthesis of the process of making lumber, or, 
in other words, absorption and reflection. In the 
observation of such a complex piece of machinery as 
a large mill, the mind swings back and forth many 
times between absorption in the study of parts and 
reflection upon their relation to each other. 

Having examined the mill in detail, and grasped 
its parts as a connected whole, the next step is to 
observe its relation to the river, to the rafts and 
rafting-boats, and, farther back, to the pineries and 
logging-camps up the river. (Northern Minnesota 



224 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

and Wisconsin.) The occupation and sights along 
the Upper Mississippi and its head waters, the pin- 
eries, and even the spring floods, are intimately con- 
nected, causally, with the saw-mills and lumber yards 
lower down. Or going in the opposite direction from 
the saw-mill, we follow the lumber till it is used in the 
various forms of construction. Some of it enters the 
planing-mills and is converted into mouldings, finish- 
ing-lumber, sashes, blinds, etc. In all forms it is 
loaded upon the cars, and shipped westward to be 
used in the construction of houses and bridges. 

Before we get through with the line of thought 
engendered by observing the saw-mill, we have can- 
vassed the whole lumber industry from the pineries to 
the plans of architects and builders in the actual work 
of construction. Not only has there been this prog- 
ress of the mind from one object or machine to an- 
other of a series connected by cause and effect, but 
there has been also a constant tendency to pass from 
the individual machines of which the series is com- 
posed to the classes of which these objects are typi- 
cal. A circular saw or a gang-saw is each typical of 
a class of saws. The same is true of each part of 
the machinery, as well as of the saw-mill or planing- 
mill considered as a whole. Each of these objects, 
whether simple or complex, suggests others, similar, 
which we have observed or seen represented in pic- 
tures. Each part of the machinery in turn becomes 
the centre of a set of comparisons leading from the 



INDUCTION 



225 



concrete object in question to the general notion of 
the class to which it belongs. For example, the steam 
engine in a mill is typical of all stationary engines 
used for driving machinery. But the parts of the 
engine are also typical of similar parts in other engines 
and machines, as the drive-wheel, cylinder, boiler, etc. 
In all these cases we become absorbed in one thing 
for a while, only to recover ourselves and to reflect 
upon the thing in its wider relations, either tracing 
out connections of cause and effect, as in a series of 
machines, or passing from the single example to the 
classof which it is typical, — absorption and reflec- 
tion. The mind swings back and forth like a pendu- 
lum between these two operations. Herbart, who 
closely defined this process, called it the mental act 
of breathing, because of the constancy of its move- 
ment. As regularly as the air is drawn into the lungs 
and again expelled, so regularly does the mind lose 
itself in its absorption with objects only to recover 
itself and reflect upon them. 
J^ In the inspection of a large printing-press in one 
of our newspaper publishing houses we meet with a 
similar experience. The attention becomes centred 
upon the press for a close analysis and synthesis of 
its parts. The cogs, wheels, rollers, inking-plate, the 
cases for the type, the appHcation of the power, the 
springs and levers, each part receives a close inspec- 
tion, and the secret of its connection with other parts 
is sought for. 

Q 



226 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

There is a vigorous effort not only to understand 
each part, but also the connection of the whole. The 
shuttle-like movement of the mind back and forth be- 
tween the parts, absorbed for a moment, reflecting 
for a moment, continues until the complex mechanism 
is understood. When this process has been satisfac- 
torily completed, we are ready to turn our minds 
again to the other objects and rooms of the printing 
establishment. The work of the compositors, setting 
up different kinds of type, the proof-reading, the edi- 
torial work, the reporters, all come in for a share of 
attention. The reporters lead us to the great world 
outside, whose happenings are brought here for pub- 
lication. On the other hand, following the distribu- 
tion of papers as they issue from the press, we think 
of newsboys, news-stands, mail-service, railroads, and 
postoffices. But the inspection of a printing-press 
also leads the thoughts in other directions and sug- 
gests other presses, great and small, in other times 
and places, other printing estabUshments, until the 
whole business of printing and pubHshing books and 
papers springs into the thought. If we desire to 
understand clearly the business of publishing a news- 
paper, we must enter into an observation of the parts 
of the process from the collection of its news to its 
distribution by the mails and carriers. Besides not- 
ing these parts we must observe their causal connec- 
tion with each other and the role that each plays in 
the economy of the whole. The causal series thus 



INDUCTION 227 

clearly outlined produces insight into an occupation, 
while every typical machine or appliance is one of a 
cross series intercepting the original series. 

The acquisition and assimilation of knowledge in 
different subjects will be found to exhibit the mental 
states of absorption and reflection as just illustrated. 
Observe the manner in which we study a poem. It 
is first read and interpreted sentence by sentence, 
glancing from verse to verse to get the connections. 
When the whole piece has been read and understood 
in its parts and connections, the suggested hnes of 
thought are taken up and followed out in their wider 
applications. Take, for example, the " Burial of 
Moses," and in the proper analysis and study of the 
poem such a process of absorption and reflection is 
observable. In tracing the biography of John Quincy 
Adams, or of Alexander Hamilton, the facts of per- 
sonal experience and action at first absorb the atten- 
tion from step to step in the study of his life. But 
reflection on the bearings of the personal events, 
upon contemporaries and upon public affairs, is no- 
ticed all along. The same mental process is observed 
in studying a battle in history, a sentence in grammar, 
a squirrel in natural history, or a picture in art. 

The effect of such mental absorption and reflection 
is to build up concepts. Series of causally related 
parts are also formed, but each series in the end 
becomes a more complete complex concept, that is, 
a representative of many similar series. The inspec- 



228 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

tion of one printing establishment suggests others, 
which are brought into comparison, till the general 
notion "publishing house" is more clearly conceived. 
The same is true in the lumber trade. The concept 
" lumber business " is not confined to Minneapolis or 
Chicago, but is common to the great lake region, 
Maine, Washington, Norway, and other countries. 
Concepts become more varied and complex with the 
advance of studies, and there is scarcely anything we 
learn by observation or reflection that does not ulti- 
mately illustrate and build up our concepts. The 
observation of even the miscellaneous objects in a 
large city leads to a variety of concepts, and in the 
end, by comparison, to the general notion "city." 

How strong the concept-creating tendency of all 
experience and thought is, can be seen in the words 
of language. The processes of thought become pet- 
rified in language. All progress in knowledge and 
acquisition of new ideas is reflected in language by 
an increase of words. But an examination of words 
in common use will show that they are nearly all the 
names of concepts. Proper names are the principal 
exception. Every common noun, verb, adjective, 
adverb, and preposition is the name of a concept; 
for example, horse, beauty, to steal, running, over, 
early, yellow, grape, ocean, etc. To understand 
these concepts there must be somewhere a progress 
from the individual to the abstract, an induction from 
particulars to a general concept. 



INDUCTION 



229 



Abstract or general notions cannot be acquired at 
first hand without specific illustrations. Even where 
the deductive process is supposedly employed, a closer 
examination will uncover the concrete or individual 
illustrations in the background, and until these are 
reached the concept has no* clear meaning. The con- 
crete examples, whether introduced sooner or later by 
way of explanation, are the real basis of the under- 
standing of the concept. It is customary to invert 
the inductive process and to drive it stern forward 
through grammar, geography, and other studies. 
TakCj for example, the word ** boomerang " as it comes 
up in a geography or reading lesson. Webster's 
dictionary, which is recommended to children as a 
first resort in such difficulties, calls it *' A remarkable 
missile weapon used by the natives of Australia." 
This gives a faint notion by using the familiar word 
"weapon." The picture accompanying the word in 
the dictionary gives a more accurate idea because 
nearer the concrete. The best possible explanation 
would be a real boomerang thrown by a native South 
Sea Islander. In the absence of these, a picture and 
a vivid description are the best means at our disposal. 
The common mistake is in learning and reciting the 
definition while neglecting the concrete basis. By 
way of further illustration, try to explain to children, 
who have never heard of them before, the egg-plant, 
palm tree, cactus, etc. 

It would be of interest to inquire into the process 



230 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

of concept-building in each of the school studies, 
where it appears under quite varying forms. The 
natural sciences are perhaps the best examples of 
concept-building from concrete materials, advancing 
regularly through a series of concepts from the indi- 
viduals and species to the most general classes of 
plants, animals, etc. In chemistry and physics the 
laws and general principles are based on substances, 
experiments, and processes observable by the senses. 
Grammar and language, when studied as a science, 
advance from concept to concept through etymology 
and syntax. In geography and history the concepts 
are less definite and more difficult to formulate, and 
yet there are many typical ideas which are to be 
developed and illustrated in each of these studies : in 
history, for example, colony, legislature, governor, 
general, revolution, institutions and customs, political 
party, laws of development, causal relations, inven- 
tions, etc. ; in geography, continents, oceans, forms 
of relief, kinds of climate and causes, occupations, 
products, commerce, etc. The fundamental truths 
and relations and rules of arithmetic must be devel- 
oped from objects and illustrations. Reading, spell- 
ing, and writing are arts, not sciences, and are more 
concerned with skill in execution than with the acqui- 
sition of a body of scientific truths. And yet certain 
general truths are emphasized and applied in these 
studies. 

Much needless confusion has been caused by rais- 



INDUCTION 



231 



ing the question where to begin in learning. Do we 
proceed from the whole to the parts, or from the 
parts to the whole ? In making the acquaintance of 
sense-objects it seems clear that we first perceive 
wholes (somewhat vaguely and indefinitely). The 
second impulse is to analyze this whole into its parts, 
then recombine them (synthesis) into a whole, which 
is more definitely and fully grasped. A house, for 
example, is generally first perceived as a whole ; and 
later it is examined more particularly as to its mate- 
rials, rooms, stairways, conveniences, furnishings, etc. 
The same is true with a mountain, a butterfly, a man. 
Thus far we have proceeded from the whole to the 
parts and then back again, — analysis and synthesis. 
The next movement is from this whole or object 
toward a group of similar objects, a class notion. 
By comparing one thing with others similar, a class 
notion is formed which includes them all. Each 
individual is a whole, but is also a type of the entire 
group. The general mental movement is succes- 
sively in two directions from any particular object ; 
first, from the whole to the parts, then grasping this 
whole in a richer, fuller sense, the mind seeks for 
relations which bind this object with others similar 
into a group, a more complex product, a concept. 
There may appear to be an exception to this rule in 
the case of a city, a continent, a railroad, or any con- 
crete object so large and complex that it cannot be 
grasped by a single effort of sense perception. But 



232 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

even here it is usual with us first to represent the 
whole object to our thought by means of a sketch, 
map, or figure of speech, so as first to get a quick 
survey of the whole thing. In history, also, we first 
grasp at wholes, then enter into a detailed account 
of an event, a campaign, a voyage, a revolution, etc. 
There are many complex wholes in geography and 
history with which it is not wise to begin, because it 
requires a long and painful effort to get at the notion 
of the whole. The wholes we have in mind are those 
which can be almost instantly grasped. Not, for 
example, an outline of American history or of the 
world's history. The choice of suitable wholes with 
which to begin is based upon the child's interest and 
apperceptive powers. Having thus examined into 
the general nature of the inductive process and the 
extent of its appHcation to school studies and to other 
forms of acquiring knowledge, we are led to a closer 
practical discussion of each of the two chief stages 
of induction : first, observation or intuition ; that is, 
the direct perception, through the senses or through 
consciousness, of the realities of the external world 
and of the mind ; second, association of ideas with 
a view to generalizing and forming concepts. 

Intuition^ implies object lessons in a wide sense. 

1 Intuition is popularly used in a sense different from the above. 
We are in need of a word which has the same meaning as the German 
word Anschauung^ for which there is no popular equivalent in English. 
Intuition, as defined by Webster, is nearly the same : " direct appre- 



INDUCTION 233 

By object lessons we usually mean the study of 
things in nature perceived through the senses. But 
it is necessary to extend the idea of object lessons 
beyond the objects and phenomena of the physical 
world, to which it has been usually limited. It in- 
cludes perception of our own mental states. These 
direct experiences of our own inner states are the 
primary basis of our understanding of other people's 
feelings, mental states, and actions. In short, an 
understanding of the phenomena of individual life 
(the acts of persons), of society, and of history is 
based upon a knowledge of our own feelings and 
mental acts, and upon the accuracy with which we 
have observed and interpreted similar things in other 
persons. We have already seen that a right appre- 
ciation of companions, biographies, social life, and 
history is the strongest of psychological forces in its 
formative influence upon character. For this reason, 
also, history includes the first and most important 
body of school studies. But object lessons drawn 
from physical nature do not measurably qualify us 
for a better appreciation of individual and social life 
and action. The fundamental illustrative materials 
for history are drawn from another source, from 
the depth of the heart and inner experience of each 

hension, or cognition; immediate knowledge, as in perception or 
consciousness." 

For a discussion of this term, see Quick's " Educational Reformers," 
p. 361, Appleton's edition. 



234 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

person. Many words in our school books can be 
illustrated and explained by objects and activities 
in physical nature, but a large part of the words 
in common use in our readers and school books can 
be explained by no external objects. They depend 
for their interpretation upon the child's own feelings, 
desires, joys, griefs, etc., and upon similar phenomena 
observed in others. 

Object lessons in this liberal sense point to the 
direct exercise of the senses and intuitions in the 
acquisition of experience of all sorts. They include 
the objects, persons, and events that we see around 
us, and our own experiences in ordinary life — the 
grass, plants, trees, and soils ; the animals, wild and 
tame, with their structure, habits, and uses ; the 
rocks, woods, hills, streams, seasons, clouds, heat, 
and cold. There is also the observation of devices 
and inventions : tools, machinery, and their work- 
ings ; the different raw and manufactured products, 
with their ways of growth and transformation. Be- 
sides these are the various kinds and dispositions 
of men, different classes and races of people, with 
great variety of character, occupation, and educa- 
tion. Their actions, modes of dress, and customs 
are included. But we have many other primary 
and indispensable lessons to learn from the play- 
ground, the street, from home and church, from 
city and country, from travel and sight-seeing, 
from holidays and work days, from sickness, and 



INDUCTION 235 

healthful excursions. Even a child's own tempers, 
faults, and successes are of the greatest value to 
himself and to the teacher in a proper self-under- 
standing and mastery. By object lessons, there- 
fore, we mean all that a child becomes conscious 
of through the direct action of his senses and of 
his mind upon external nature or inner experience. 
It is desired that a child's knowledge in all direct 
experience be simple, clear, and according to the 
facts. All words that he uses become only signs 
of the realities of his experience. Every word 
standi for a potent thought in his own life history. 
Of course, object lessons in this rich and real sense 
cannot be confined to such few objects — birds, leaves, 
models, and straws — as can be brought into a school- 
room. All the world, especially the outside world, 
becomes 

" A complex Chinese toy 
Fashioned for a barefoot boy." 

Many of the most interesting objects and phe- 
nomena in nature and of man's construction cannot 
be observed in the schoolroom at all; for instance, 
the river, the bridge, the forest, the flight of birds, 
the sunrise, the storm, the stars, etc. Still they must 
know these very things, and how to use them better 
in constructing the mind's treasures than they are 
wont to do. In reading, grammar, geography, arith- 
metic, and nature study, we desire to ground school 



236 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

discussions daily upon the clear facts of experience, 
of personal observation. We need to clear up all 
confused and faulty perceptions, and to stimulate 
children to make their future observations more 
reliable. 

We have already seen the importance of object 
lessons in this full and real sense to interest. Inter- 
est in every study is awakened and constantly reen- 
forced by an appeal, not to books, but to life. Much 
of the dull work in arithmetic, geography, and other 
studies is due to the neglect of these real, illustra- 
tive materials. 

Of the six great sources of interest (Herbart's), 
three, the empirical, the aesthetic, and the sympathetic, 
deal entirely with concrete objects or with individuals, 
while even the speculative and social interests are 
often based directly upon particular persons or 
phenomena. In addition to this it may be said that 
the interests of children are overwhelmingly with 
the concrete and imaginative phases of every sub- 
ject, and only secondarily with general truths and 
laws. The latter are of greater concern to older 
children and adults. Object lessons therefore con- 
tain a life-giving element that should enter into every 
subject of study. 

Nor should these interesting, illustrative object 
lessons be limited to the lower grades. They con- 
tain the combustible material upon which an abid- 
ing interest in any subject is to be kindled. There 



INDUCTION 



237 



are indeed other and perhaps higher sources of in- 
terest, but they are largely dependent upon these 
original springs that flow from the concrete begin- 
nings. In the second place, object lessons supply 
a stock of primary ideas which form the foundation 
of all later progress in knowledge. This is not a 
question of interest merely, but of understanding, of 
capacity to get at the meaning of an idea. Concepts 
are not the raw materials with which the mind works, 
but they are elaborated out of the raw products fur- 
nished by the senses and other forms of intuition. 
As cloth is manufactured out of the raw cotton and 
wool produced on the farm or in southern fields, so 
concepts are a manufactured article, into whose tex- 
ture materials previously gathered enter. Concepts 
do not grow up directly from the soil of the mind 
any more than ready-made clothing grows on the 
bushes or on the backs of the wearers. Concepts 
must be made out of stuff that is already in the 
mind, as woollen blankets are spun and woven out 
of fleeces. Our present contention is, that the mind 
shall be filled up with the best quality of raw stuff, 
otherwise there will be defect and deficiency in its 
later products. The stuff out of which concepts are 
built is drawn from the varied experiences of life. 
On account of this intimate relation between the 
realities of life and school studies, they cannot be 
separated. Every branch, especially in elementary 
studies, must be treated concretely and be built up 



238 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

out of sense materials. Every study has its concrete 
side, its illustrative materials, its colors of individual 
things taken from life. Every study has likewise 
its more general scientific truths and classifications. 
The prime mistake in nearly all teaching and in 
the text-book method is in supposing that the great 
truths are accessible in some other way than through 
the concrete materials that He properly at the en- 
trance. The text-books are full of the abstractions 
and general formulae of the sciences ; but they can, 
in the very nature of the case, deal only in a meagre 
way with the individual objects and facts upon which 
knowledge in different subjects is based. This nec- 
essary defect in a text-book method must be made 
good by excursions, by personal observation, by a 
constant reference of lessons to daily experience 
outside of school, by more direct study of our sur- 
roundings, by the teacher perfecting himself in this 
kind of knowledge and in its skilful use. 

There was a current belief at one time that object 
lessons should form a special study for a particular 
period of school life, namely, the first years. It was 
thought that sufficient sense-materials could be col- 
lected in two or three years to supply the whole 
school curriculum. But this thought is now aban- 
doned. Children in the earlier grades may properly 
spend more time in object study than in later grades, 
but there is no time in school life when we can afford 
to cut loose from the real world. There is scarcely 



INDUCTION 



239 



a lesson in any subject that cannot be clarified and 
strengthened by calling in the fresh experiences of 
daily life. 

The discussion of the concept and of the inductive 
process has shown that concepts cannot be found at 
first hand. There must be observation of different 
objects, comparison, and grouping into a class. A 
person who has never seen an elephant, nor a picture 
of one, can form no adequate notion of elephants in 
general. We can by no shift dispense with the illus- 
trations. The more the memory is filled with vivid 
pictures of real things, the more easy and rapid will 
be the progress to general truths. Not only are gen- 
eral notions of classes of objects in nature or of per- 
sonal actions built up out of particulars, but the 
general laws and principles of nature and of human 
society must be observed as illustrated in real life to be 
understood. We should have no faith in electricity if 
it were simply a scientific theory, if it had not demon- 
strated its power through material objects. The idea 
of cohesion would never have been dreamed of, if it 
had not become necessary to explain certain physical 
facts. The spherical form of the earth was not ac- 
cepted by many even learned men until sailors with 
ships had gone around it. Political ideas of popular 
government which a few centuries ago were regarded 
as purely Utopian, are now accepted as facts because 
they have become matters of common observation. 
The circulation of the blood remained a secret for 



240 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

many centuries, because of the difficulties of bringing 
it home to the knowledge of the senses. These ex- 
amples will show how difficult it is to go beyond the 
reach of sense experience. Even those philosophers 
who have tried to construct theories without the safe 
foundation of facts have labored for naught. The 
more our thought is checked and guided by Nature's 
realities, the less danger of inflation with pretended 
knowledge. Bacon found that in this tendency to 
theorize loosely upon a slender basis of facts, was the 
fundamental weakness of ancient philosophy. Na- 
ture, if observed, will reiterate her truths till they 
become convincing verities, while the study of words 
and books alone produces a quasi knowledge which 
often mistakes the symbol for the thing. 

Having this thought in mind, Comenius, more than 
two and a half centuries ago, said : — 

" It is certain that there is nothing in the under- 
standing which has not been previously in the senses, 
and consequently to exercise the senses carefully in 
discriminating the difference of natural objects is to 
lay the foundation of all wisdom, all eloquence, and 
of all good and prudent action. The right instruc- 
tion of youth does not consist in cramming them with 
a mass of words, phrases, sentences, and opinions 
collected from authors. In this way the youth are 
taught, Hke ^Esop's crow in the fable, to adorn them- 
selves with strange feathers. Why should we not, 
instead of dead books, open the living book of Nature ? 



INDUCTION 241 

Not the shadow of things, but the things themselves, 
which make an impression upon the senses and im- 
agination, are to be brought before the youth." 
James, in his "Talks to Teachers," p. 146, says: — 
" During the first seven or eight years of childhood 
the mind is most interested in the sensible properties 
of material things. Constructiveness is the instinct 
most active; and by the incessant hammering and 
sawing, and dressing and undressing dolls, putting of 
things together and taking them apart, the child not 
only trains the muscles to coordinate action, but 
accumulates a store of physical conceptions which 
are the basis of his knowledge of the material world 
through life. Object-teaching and manual training 
wisely extend the sphere of this order of acquisition. 
Clay, wood, metals, and the various kinds of tools are 
made to contribute to the store. A youth brought 
up with a sufficiently broad basis of this kind is 
always at home in the world. He stands within the 
pale. He is acquainted with Nature, and Nature, in 
a certain sense, is acquainted with him. Whereas the 
youth brought up alone at home, with no acquaint- 
ance with anything but the printed page, is always 
afflicted with a certain remoteness from the material 
facts of life, and a correlative insecurity of conscious- 
ness, which make of him a kind of alien on the earth 
in which he ought to feel himself perfectly at home. 
" To have grown up on a farm, to have haunted a 
carpenter's and blacksmith's shop, to have handled 

R 



242 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

horses and cows and boats and guns, and to have 
ideas and abilities connected with such objects, are an 
inestimable part of youthful acquisition. After ado- 
lescence it is rare to be able to get into familiar touch 
with any of these primitive things. The instinctive 
propensions have faded, and the habits are hard to 
acquire. 

" Accordingly, one of the best fruits of the ' child- 
study ' movement has been to reinstate all these 
activities to their proper place in a sound system of 
education. Feed the growing human being, feed 
him with the sort of experience for which from year 
to year he shows a natural craving, and he will 
develop in adult life a sounder sort of mental tissue, 
even though he may seem to be * wasting * a great 
deal of his growing time, in the eyes of those for 
whom the only channels of learning are books and 
verbally communicated information." 

This passage suggests that in the effort to get a 
sound concrete basis for ideas in experience we have 
gone a step beyond the old idea of observation and 
sense training. A solid and practical education de- 
mands more than the mere observation of objects as 
a basis for ideas. The manual training and construc- 
tive exercises which are being gradually introduced 
into many schools are believed to be a better means 
of putting a child in possession of his powers, both 
physical and mental, than any kind of mere study, 
whether of books or of objects. A child will come 



INDUCTION 243 

closer to realities, will have a keener appreciation of 
the qualities of objects, by handling, building, and 
constructing, than by mere observation. 

Still more significant, perhaps, is the statement of 
psychologists that all ideas have a tendency to pro- 
duce motor action, and that the development of the 
brain tracts themselves, physiologically speaking, 
depends largely upon the freedom and variety of out- 
going physical activity. From this point of view the 
very basis of a healthy brain development, together 
with the complete command of bodily powers by the 
mind, is found in an abundance of physical activity. 
This is a matter of rapidly growing importance, 
because many of our town and city boys have no 
adequate opportunity for the development in various 
directions of their physical powers. It is incumbent 
upon the school in some way or other to supply this 
fundamental physical basis of correct thinking and 
give the boys and girls a better command of them- 
selves and of the world around them by the various 
forms of manual training and industrial, constructive 
work. 

There has always been a strong tendency in the 
schools to teach words, definitions, and rules without 
a sufficient knowledge of the objects and experiences 
of life that put meaning into these abstractions. The 
result is, that all the prominent educational reformers 
have pointedly condemned the practice of learning 
words, names, etc., without a knowledge of the things 



244 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

signified. The difference is like that between learn- 
ing the names of a list of persons at a reception, and 
being present to enter into acquaintance and conver- 
sation with the guests. The oft-quoted dictum of 
Kant is a laconic summary of this argument, " Gen- 
eral notions (concepts) without sense-percepts are 
empty." The general definition of composite flowers 
means little or nothing to a child ; but after a familiar 
acquaintance with the sunflower, dandelion, thistle, 
etc., such a general statement has a clear meaning. 
Concepts without the content derived from objects 
are like a frame without a picture, or a cistern with- 
out water. The table is spread and the dishes 
placed, but no refreshments are supplied. 

Having completed the discussion of intuition, in- 
cluding object lessons, that is, the preparatory step to 
the inductive process, we reach the second, reflection 
and survey. We are seeking for a general term that 
covers the several steps in the latter part of the 
inductive process. It includes comparison, classifica- 
tion, and abstraction. It may be discussed from the 
standpoint of " association of ideas," and contributes 
directly to concentration. 

We have in mind, chiefly, that thoughtful habit 
which is not satisfied with simply acquiring a new fact 
or set of ideas, but is impelled to trace them out along 
their various connections. We have to do now not with 
the acquisition but with the elaboration and assimilation 
of knowledge. The acquisition of knowledge in the 



INDUCTION 245 

ordinary sense is one thing ; its elaboration in a full 
sense sets up a standard of progress which will put life 
into all school work and reach far beyond it, and in fact 
is limited only by the individual capacity for thought. 
In school, in reading and study, we have been largely 
engaged in acquiring knowledge on the principle that 
" knowledge is power." But no practical man needs 
to be told that much so-called school knowledge is 
not power. Facts which have been simply stored in 
the memory are often of little ready use. It is like 
wheat in the bin, which must first pass through the 
mill and change its entire form before it will perform 
its function. Facts, in order to become the personal 
property of the owner, must be worked over, sifted, 
sorted, classified, and connected. The process of 
elaborating and assimilating knowledge is so impor- 
tant that it requires more time and pains than the 
first labor of acquisition. Philosophers will admit 
this at once, but it is hard for us to break loose from 
the traditions of the schoolmasters. The mind is not 
in all respects like a lumber-yard. It is, to be sure, 
a place for storing up knowledge, just as the yard is 
a deposit for lumber. But there the analogy ceases, 
and the mind begins to resemble more the contractor 
and builder. There is planing, sawing, and hammer- 
ing ; the materials collected are prepared, fitted, and 
mortised together, and a building fit for use begins to 
rise. Knowledge also is for use, and not primarily 
for storage. That simple acquisition and quantity of 



246 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

knowledge are not enough, is illustrated by the anal- 
ogy of an army. Numbers do not make an army, 
but a rabble. A general first enlists raw recruits, 
drills and trains them through a long period, and 
finally combines them into an effective army. Many 
of our ideas when first received are like disorderly, 
raw recruits. They need to be disciplined into 
proper action and to ready obedience. 

In connection with assimilation, the analogy be- 
tween the stomach and the mind is of still greater 
interest. The food received into the stomach is 
taken up by the organs of digestion, assimilated, and 
converted into blood. The process, however, takes 
its course without conscious effort or cooperation. 
Knowledge likewise enters the mind, but how far 
will assimilation go on without conscious effort .-* If 
kept in a healthy state, the organs of digestion are 
self-active. Not so the mind. Ideas entering the 
mind are not so easily assimilated as the food mate- 
rials that enter the stomach. A cow chews her cud 
once, but the ideas that enter our minds may be 
drawn from their receptacle in the memory and 
worked over again and again. Ideas have to be put 
side by side, separated, grouped, and arranged into 
connected series. There is, no doubt, some tendency 
in the mind toward involuntary assimilation, but it 
greatly needs culture and training. Many people 
never reach the thinking stage, never learn to survey 
and reflect. The tendency of the mind to work over 



INDUCTION 247 

and digest knowledge should receive ample culture in 
the schools. There is a mental inertia produced by 
pure memory exercise that is unfavorable to reflec- 
tion. It requires an extra exertion to arrange and 
organize facts, even after they are acquired. But 
when the habit of reflection has been inaugurated, it 
adds much interest and value to all mental acquisi- 
tions. 

There are also well-established principles which 
guide the mind in elaborating its facts. The laws of 
the association of ideas indicate clearly the natural 
trend of mental elaboration. The association of 
things because of contiguity in time and place is the 
simplest mode. The classification of objects or ac- 
tivities on the basis of resemblance is the second 
form, and that upon which the inductive process is 
principally founded. In the third case, objects and 
series are easily retained in memory when the rela- 
tion of cause and effect is perceived between them. 
These natural highways of association, especially the 
second and third, should be frequently travelled in 
linking the facts of school study with each other. 
Indeed, the outcome of a rational survey of an object 
or fact in its different relations is an association of 
ideas, which is one of the best results of study. Such 
connections of resemblance and difference, or of cause 
and effect, are abundant and interesting in the natu- 
ral sciences and physical geography, also in history 
and languages. 



248 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

The Herbartians draw an important distinction 
between psychical and logical concepts or general 
notions. The psychical concept is worked out natu- 
rally by a child or an adult as a result of the chance 
experiences of life. It is usually a work of accident, 
is incomplete, faulty, and often misleading. The 
logical concept, on the other hand, is scientifically 
correct and complete. It includes all the common 
characteristics of the group and excludes all that is 
not essential. It is a product of accurate and mature 
thinking. We all possess an abundance of psychical 
concepts drawn from the miscellaneous experiences 
of life. It is a large share of the school work, as we 
have seen, to develop logical concepts out of these 
immature and faulty psychical concepts. A child is 
disposed to call tadpoles fishes ; and later, porpoises 
and whales are faultily classed with the fishes in the 
same way. Nearly all our psychical concepts are 
subject to such loose and faulty judgments. Even 
where one is accurate in his observations, the conclu- 
sions naturally drawn are often wrong. For exam- 
ple, a child that has seen none but red squirrels 
would naturally think all squirrels red, and include 
the quality red in his general notion. Most of our 
empirically derived notions are spotted with such de- 
fects. What relation have these facts to induction ? 
We claim that general notions should be experimen- 
tally formed, that is, by a gradual collection of con- 
crete or illustrative materials, and that the logical 



INDUCTION 249 

concepts are the final outcome of comparison and 
reasoning toward conclusions. In other words, we 
must begin with the psychical concepts with all their 
faults ; we must make mistakes and correct them as 
our experience enlarges, and gradually work out of 
psychical into logical methods and results. Our 
text-books usually give us the logical concept first, 
the rule, definition, principle, in its most complete 
and accurate statement. This does violence to the 
child's natural mental movement. 

The' final stage of induction is the formulation of 
the general truths, the concepts, principles, and laws 
which constitute the science of any branch of knowl- 
edge. These truths should be well formulated in 
clear and expressive language and mastered in this 
form. Moreover, the results reached, when reduced 
to the strict scientific form, are the same in the in- 
ductive methods as in the deductive or common 
text-book method. Not that the effect on the mind 
of the learner is the same, but the body of truth 
is unaltered. The general truths of every subject 
can be easily found well arranged in text-books. 
But we are more anxious to know how the youth 
may best approach and appreciate these truths, than 
simply to see them stored in the mind in well- 
arranged form. 

A rich man, in leaving a fortune to his son, would 
more than double the value of the inheritance if he 
could teach him properly to appreciate wealth and 



250 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

form in him the disposition and ability to use it 
wisely. In the same way the best part of knowl- 
edge is not simply its possession, but an apprecia- 
tion of its value. The method of reaching scientific 
knowledge through the inductive process, that is, by 
the collection and comparison of data with a view 
to positive insight, will give a greater meaning to 
the results. Interest is awakened and self-activity 
exercised at every step in the progress toward gen- 
eral truths. By the reflective habit these truths will 
be seen in their origin and causal connection, and 
the line of similarity, contrast, causal relation, anal- 
ogy, and coincidence will be thoughtfully traced. 

Possibly the progress toward formulated knowl- 
edge will be less rapid by induction, but it will be 
real progress with no backward steps. It may well 
be doubted whether, with average minds, real scien- 
tific knowledge is attainable except by a strong 
admixture of inductive processes. Perfection in the 
form and structure of our concepts is not to be 
attained by children nor by adults, but the ideal of 
scientific accuracy in general notions is to be kept 
constantly in view and approximated to the extent 
of our abiUty. 

De Garmo, in his " Essentials of Method," p. 75, 
says : — 

"This, then, is the great merit of Pestalozzi, that 
whereas the men of his time began instruction with 
the abstract, with words whose content was un- 



INDUCTION 251 

known to the children, he began with the individual 
things, from which alone the abstractions could gain 
any significance in the minds of the pupils. Instead 
of presupposing an experience, he supplied one. 
Instruction is ever swinging between two extremes, 
underived generals, and ungeneralized particulars. 
Undue conservatism tends to the former, and un- 
thinking radicalism to the latter. Pestalozzi struck 
the golden mean, when he said the mind must 
ever rise from clear individual to distinct general 
notions." 

Spencer, in his chapter on " Intellectual Educa- 
tion," says : — 

"To say that our lessons ought to start from the 
concrete and end in the abstract, may be considered 
as in part a repetition of the foregoing (from the 
simple to the complex). Nevertheless, it is a maxim 
that needs to be stated ; if with no other view, then 
with the view of showing in certain cases what are 
truly the simple and the complex. For, unfortu- 
nately, there has been much misunderstanding on 
this point. General formulas which men have de- 
vised to express groups of details, and which have 
severally simplified their conceptions by uniting 
many facts into one fact, they have supposed must 
simplify the conceptions of the child also ; quite 
forgetting that a generalization is simple only in 
comparison with the whole mass of particular truths 
it comprehends — that it is more complex than any one 



252 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

of these truths taken singly — that only after many 
of these single truths have been acquired does the 
generalization ease the memory and help the reason 
— and that to the child not possessing these single 
truths it is necessarily a mystery. Thus confound- 
ing two kinds of simplification, teachers have con- 
stantly erred by setting out with ' first principles,' 
a proceeding essentially, though not apparently, at 
variance with the primary rule; which implies that 
the mind should be introduced to principles through 
the medium of examples, and so should be led 
from the particular to the general — from the con- 
crete to the abstract." 

Laurie, in his " Institutes of Education," says : — 

" Train the young in the formation of general con- 
cepts, and in the analysis of those they have imma- 
turely formed. With this object in view obey the 
following rule : — 

** Rule. — Teach generalizations as generalizations ; 
that is to say, proceed from the particular to the 
general, from the concrete individual to the ab- 
stract. 

" The tradition-bound teacher of language will say 
that the abstract syntactical rule of grammar can be 
learned quite easily by boys. Of course it can — as 
words ; but it can never be anything but a meaning- 
less collocation of words until it is filled with the con- 
crete individual ' instances ' which the boy is daily 
encountering in his studies. And inasmuch as the 



INDUCTION 253 

human mind, as a matter of fact, gets its general and 
abstract proposition (even if it has to do so retro- 
spectively, i.e. by going back) through particulars, 
our duty is to lead it to its general proposition along 
the road or way of particulars. The mind will thus 
make easier and more solid and more rapid progress 
in the knowledge of a subject, and will also have an 
intellectual interest in the subject. But these are not 
the sole, nor yet the chief, advantages ; for it is only 
by following the way of reason that we can truly 
train and discipline reason to the sound and effective 
exercise of its powers on all the affairs of life." 

After all, deduction performs a much more im- 
portant part in the work of building up concepts 
than the previous discussion would indicate. As fast 
as psychical concepts are formed we clamber upon 
them and try to get a better view of the field around 
us. Like captured guns, we turn them at once upon 
the enemy and make them perform service in new 
fields of conquest. If a new case or object appears, 
we judge of it in the light of our acquired concepts, 
no matter whether they are complete and accurate or 
not. This is deduction. We are glad to gain any 
vantage ground in judging the objects and phe- 
nomena constantly presenting themselves. In fact, 
it is inevitable that inductive and deductive processes 
will be constantly dovetailed into each other. The 
faulty concepts arrived at are brought persistently 
into contact with new individual cases. They are 



254 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

thus corrected, enlarged, and more accurately grasped. 
This is the series of mental stepping-stones that leads 
up gradually to logical concepts. The inductive pro- 
cess is the fundamental one, and deduction comes in 
at every step to brace it up. This is only another 
illustration that mental processes are intimately inter- 
woven, and, except in thought, not to be separated. 
In the discussion of apperception in the following 
chapter we shall see that, in the process of gaining 
knowledge, our acquired ideas and concepts play a 
most important role. They are really the chief assim- 
ilating agencies. But in spite of all this we shall 
scarcely be led again to the standpoint that logical or 
scientific concepts should be the starting-point in the 
study of any subject. 



CHAPTER VI 

APPERCEPTION 

We have now to deal with a principle of pedagogy 
upon which all the leading ideas thus far discussed 
largely depend for their realization. Interest, con- 
centration, and induction set up requirements relative 
to the matter, spirit, and method of school studies. 
Apperception is a practical principle, obedience to 
which will contribute daily and hourly to making real 
in school exercises the ideas of interest, concentra- 
tion, and induction. 

We observe in passing that the important principles 
already discussed stand in close mutual relation and 
dependence. Interest aids concentration by bringing 
all kinds of knowledge into close touch with the feel- 
ings. Interest puts incentives into every kind of 
information so as to arouse the will, which, in turn, 
unifies and controls the mental actions. But concen- 
tration has a reflex influence upon interest, because 
unity and conscious mastery give added pleasure to 
knowledge. Induction is a natural, psychological 
method of acquiring and unifying knowledge in an 
interesting way. Apperception, in turn, is a prin- 
ciple of mental action which puts life and interest 

25s 



256 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

into inductive and concentrating processes. Every 
hour of school labor illustrates the value of appercep- 
tion, and teachers should find in it a constant antidote 
to faulty methods. 

Apperception is said to contain nothing new in 
psychology, and is thought identical with certain 
phases of the association of ideas. It is closely akin 
to what we have long known as assimilation of ideas, 
and it involves especially the interaction of ideas upon 
one another by which new-entering experiences are 
clarified and incorporated into old masses of thought. 
Professor James says, " Apperception corresponds to 
nothing peculiar or elementary in psychology, being 
only one of the innumerable results of the psycho- 
logical process of the association of ideas, and psy- 
chology itself can easily dispense with the word, 
useful as it may be in pedagogics." Psychologists 
and older writers on pedagogy have been somewhat 
irritated by the frequent use of this new term, and 
especially by the importance attached to it. Its 
pecuHar value lies in the sharper analysis of the 
elements of interpretation in the process of acquiring 
new ideas. This is significant because it strikes at 
the centre of the teaching process, at the very point 
of contact in the mind's struggle with ideas. Apper- 
ception also includes the action of the whole mind 
(knowing, feeling, and will) at any given moment, 
and is not limited to any fractional part like concep- 
tion or memory or reason, analyzed out from the 



APPERCEPTION 



257 



rest. Apperception requires, therefore, that the 
teacher at every stage shall get the child's point of 
view, his whole mental attitude in approaching any 
difficulty. The child's whole ability and acquired 
knowledge can then be focussed upon the problem in 
hand. How to organize a child's mental resources 
and to keep them focussed most economically upon 
the variety of difficulties that arise in school, — this 
is the problem of apperception. 

Apperception may be roughly defined at first as 
the process of acquiring new ideas by the aid of old 
ideas already in the mind. It makes the acquisition 
of new knowledge easier and quicker. Not that 
there is any easy road to learning, but there is a 
natural process which greatly accelerates the prog- 
ress of acquisition, just as it is better to follow a 
highway over a rough country than to betake one's 
self to the stumps and brush. For example, if one 
is familiar with peaches, apricots will be quickly 
understood as a kindred kind of fruit, even though 
a little strange. A person who is familiar with elec- 
trical machinery will easily interpret the meaning and 
purpose of every part of a new electrical plant. One 
may perceive a new object without understanding it, 
but to apperceive it is to interpret its meaning by the 
aid of similar familiar notions. 

If one examines a typewriter for the first time, it 
will take some pains and effort to understand its con- 
struction and use ; but after examining a Remington, 



258 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

another kind will be more easily understood, because 
the principle of the first interprets that of the second. 
Suppose the Steppes of Russia are mentioned for the 
first time to a class. The word has little or no mean- 
ing, or perhaps suggests erroneously a succession of 
steps or benches. But we remark that the steppes 
are like the prairies and plains to the west of the 
Mississippi River, previously studied, covered with 
grass and fed on by herds. By awakening a familiar 
notion already in the mind and bringing it distinctly 
to the front, the new thing is easily understood. 
Again, a boy goes to town and sees a banana for the 
first time, and asks : " What is that ^ I never saw 
anything Hke that." He thinks he has no class of 
things to which it belongs, no place to put it. His 
father answers that it is to eat, like an orange or a 
pear, and its significance is at once plain by the ref- 
erence to something familiar. 

Again, two men, the one a machinist and the other 
an observer unskilled in machines, visit the machinery 
hall of an exposition. The machinist observes a new 
invention and finds in it a new application of an old 
principle. As he passes along from one machine to 
another he is much interested in noting new devices 
and novel appliances, and at the end of an hour he 
leaves the hall with a mind enriched. The other 
observer sees the same machines and their parts, but 
does not detect the principle of their construction. 
His previous knowledge of machines is not sufficient 



APPERCEPTION 



259 



to give him the clew to their explanation. After an 
hour of uninterested observation he leaves the hall 
with a confused notion of shafts, wheels, cogs, bands, 
etc., but with no greater insight into the principles of 
machinery. Why has one man learned so much and 
the other nothing ? Because the machinist's previous 
experience served as an interpreter and explained 
these new contrivances, while the other had no suffi- 
cient previous knowledge and so acquired nothing 
new. "To him that hath shall be given." 

In the act of apperception the old ideas dwelling 
in the mind are not to be regarded as dead treasures 
stored away and only occasionally drawn out and 
used by a purposed effort of the memory, but they 
are living forces which have the active power of 
seizing and appropriating new ideas. Lazarus says 
they stand " like well-armed men in the inner strong- 
hold of the mind ready to sally forth and overcome 
or make serviceable whatever shows itself at the 
portals of sense." It is, then, through the active aid 
of familiar ideas that new things find an introduction 
to soul life. If old friends go out to meet the strangers 
and welcome them, there will be an easy entrance 
and a quick adoption into the new home. At this 
point the older pedagogy emphasized the association 
of ideas as an aid to the memory, but apperception 
emphasizes the more vital process of interpretation. ^^ 

But frequently these old friends who stand in the 
background of our thoughts must be awakened and 



26o THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

called to the front. They must stand, as it were, on 
tiptoe, ready to welcome the stranger. For if they 
lie asleep in the penetralia of the home, the new- 
comers may approach and pass by for lack of a 
welcome. It is often necessary, therefore, for the 
teacher to revive old impressions, to call up previ- 
ously acquired knowledge, and to put it in readiness 
to receive and welcome the new. The success with 
which this is done is often the difference between 
good and poor teaching. 

We might suppose that when two persons look at 
the same object they would get the same impression, 
but this is not true at all. Where one person faints 
with fright or emotion, another sees nothing to be 
disturbed at. The old darky's fright upon his first 
view of a steamboat coming round the bend in the 
river is an illustration. In former ages people looked 
upon an eclipse with awe and dread ; now the same 
appearance is witnessed with a pleased interest. 
Two travellers come in sight of an old homestead. 
To one it is an object of absorbing interest as the 
home of his childhood ; to the other it is much like 
any other old farm-house. What is the cause of this 
difference } Not the house. It is the same in both 
cases. It is remarkable how much color is given to 
every idea that enters into the mind by the ideas 
already there. Some visitors at the World's Fair 
could tell almost at a glance to what states many of 
the buildings belonged ; other visitors had to study 



APPERCEPTION 26 1 

this out on the maps and notices. One who is 
famiUar with the history, architecture, products, the 
social habits and customs, of the different states is 
able to classify many of the buildings with ease. 
His previous knowledge of these states interprets 
their buildings. Mount Vernon naturally belongs to 
Virginia, Independence Hall to Pennsylvania, John 
Hancock's house to Massachusetts. In a still more 
striking manner a knowledge of foreign countries 
enables the observer to classify such buildings as 
the French, the German, the Swedish, the Japanese, 
etc. Again, in viewing any exhibit our enjoyment 
and appreciation depend almost entirely upon our 
previous knowledge, not upon our eyesight or our 
physical endurance. Many objects of the greatest 
value we pass by with an indifferent glance because 
our previous knowledge is not sufficient to give us 
their meaning. 

If a dry-goods merchant, a horse jockey, and an 
architect pass down a city street together, what will 
each observe ? The merchant notices all the dry- 
goods stores, their displays, and their favorable or 
unfavorable location. The jockey sees every horse 
and equipage; he forms a quiet but quick judgment 
upon every passing animal. The architect sees the 
buildings and style of construction. If, in the even- 
ing, each is called upon to give his observations for 
the day, the jockey talks of horses and describes 
some of the best specimens in detail, the merchant 



/ 



262 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

speaks of store-fronts and merchandise, the architect 
is full of elevations of striking or curious buildings. 
The architect and merchant remember nothing, per- 
haps, about the horses ; the jockey, nothing of stores 
or buildings. Three people may occupy the same 
pew in a church ; the one can tell you all about the 
music, the second the good points in the sermon, and 
the third the style and becomingness of the bonnets 
and dresses. Each one sees what he has in his own 
mind. A teacher describes Yosemite Valley to a 
geography class. Some of the children construct 
a mental picture of a gorge with steep mountain 
sides, but no two pictures are alike ; some have 
mental pictures that resemble nothing in heaven 
above or earth below; some have constructed nothing 
at all, only the echo of a few spoken words. If the 
teacher, at the close of her description, could have 
the mental state of each child photographed on the 
blackboard of her schoolroom, she would be in mental 
distress. In presenting such topics to children, much 
depends upon the previous content of their minds, 
upon the colors out of which they paint the pic- 
tures. We are now prepared for a more accurate 
definition of apperception. Lindner's " Psychology," 
p. 124, translated by De Garmo, gives the fol- 
lowing : — 

" The transformation of a newer (weaker) concept 
by means of an older one surpassing the former in 
power and inner organization bears the name of apper- 



APPERCEPTION 263 

ception, in contrast to the unaltered reception of the 
same perception." 

Lindner remarks further : — 

" Apperception is the reaction of the old against 
the new — in it is revealed the preponderance which 
the older, firmer, and more self-contained concept 
groups have in contrast to the concepts which have 
just entered consciousness." 

Again, on page 126, he says : — 

" It is a kind of process of condensation of thought 
and brings into the mental Hfe a certain stability and 
firmness, in that it subordinates new to older impres- 
sions, puts everything in its right place and in its 
right relation to the whole, and in this way works at 
that organic formation of our consciousness which 
we call culture." 

Lange gives the following definition on page 13 of 
" Apperception " : — 

" Apperception may be defined as that interaction 
between two similar ideas or thought-complexes in the 
course of which the weaker, unorganized, isolated idea 
or thought-complex is incorporated into the richer, 
better digested, and more firmly compacted one." 

Oftentimes, therefore, older ideas or thought masses, 
being clear, strong, and well-digested, receive a new 
impression to modify and appropriate it. This is 
especially true where opinions have been carefully 
formed after thought and deliberation. A well- 
trained political economist, for example, when ap- 



264 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

proachiiig a new theory or presentation of it by a 
George or a Bellamy, meets it with all the resources 
of a well-stored, thoughtful mind, and admits it, if at 
all, in a modified form into his system of thought. 
Sometimes, however, a new theory, which strikes the 
mind with great clearness and vigor, is able to make 
a powerful assault upon previous opinions, and per- 
haps modify or overturn them. This is the more apt 
to be the case if one's previous ideas have been weak 
and undecided. In the interaction between the old 
and new, the latter then becomes the apperceiving 
forces. Upon the untrained or poorly equipped 
mind a strong argument has a more decisive effect 
than it may justly deserve. As we noticed above, 
new ideas, especially those coming directly through 
the senses, are often more vivid and attractive than 
similar old ones. For this reason they usually occupy 
greater attention and prominence at first than later, 
when the old ideas have begun to revive and reassert 
themselves. Old ideas usually have the advantage 
over the new in being better organized, more closely 
connected in series and groups ; and having been often 
repeated, they acquire a certain permanent ascen- 
dency in the thoughts. In this interaction between 
similar notions, old and new, the differences at first 
arrest attention, then gradually sink into the back- 
ground, while the stronger points of resemblance 
begin to monopolize the thought and bind the notions 
into a unity. 



APPERCEPTION 265 

The use of familiar notions in acquiring an insight 
into new things is a natural tendency or drift of the 
mind. As soon as we see something new and desire 
to understand it, at once we involuntarily begin to 
ransack our old stock of ideas to discover anything 
in our previous experience which corresponds to this 
or is like it. For whatever is like it or has an analogy 
to it, or serves the same uses, will explain this new 
thing, though the two objects be in other points essen- 
tially different. We are, in short, constantly falling 
back upon our old experiences and classifications for 
the explanation of new objects that appear to us. 

So far is this true that the most ordinary things 
can be explained only in the light of experience. 
When John Smith wrote a note to his companions 
at Jamestown and thus communicated his desires to 
them, it was uninteUigible to the Indians. They had 
no knowledge of writing and looked on the marks as 
magical. When Columbus's ships first appeared on 
the coast of the New World, the natives looked upon 
them as great birds. They had never seen large sail- 
ing vessels. To vary the illustration, the art of read- 
ing, so easy to a student, is the accumulated result of 
a long collection of knowledge and experience. Will- 
iam James says : ** It is the fate of every impression 
thus to fall into a mind preoccupied with memories, 
ideas, and interests, and by these it is taken in. 
Educated as we already are, we never get an experi- 
ence that remains for us completely nondescript : it 



266 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

always reminds of something similar in quality, or of 
some context that might have surrounded it before, 
and which it now in some way suggests. This mental 
escort which the mind supplies is drawn, of course, 
from the mind's ready-made stock. We conceive the 
impression in some definite way. We dispose of it 
according to our acquired possibilities, be they few or 
many, in the way of 'ideas.' This way of taking in 
the object is the process of apperception. The con- 
ceptions which meet and assimilate it are called by 
Herbart the ' apperceiving mass.' The apperceiving 
impression is engulfed in this, and the result is a new 
field of consciousness, of which one part (and often a 
very small part) comes from the outer world, and 
another part (sometimes by far the largest) comes 
from the previous contents of the mind." 

There is a quick, automatic use of the appercep- 
tion masses which is of great importance in prac- 
tical affairs, and is much emphasized by writers on 
apperception. It is, however, little more than a form 
of the association of ideas. We often see a person at 
a distance and, by some slight characteristic of motion, 
form, or dress, recognize him at once. From this 
slight trace we picture to ourselves the person in full, 
and say we saw him in the street. Sitting in my 
room at evening I hear the regular passenger train 
come in. The noise alone suggests the engine, cars, 
conductor, passengers, and all the train complete. 
As a matter of fact, I saw nothing at all but have 



APPERCEPTION 26/ 

before my mind the whole picture. On Sunday 
morning I see some one enter a familiar church door, 
and, going on my way, the whole picture of church, 
congregation, pastor, music, and sermon come dis- 
tinctly to my mind. Only a passing glance at one 
person entering suggests the whole scene. In look- 
ing at a varied landscape we see many things which 
the sensuous eye alone could not detect, — distances, 
perspective and relative size, position and nature of 
objects. This apperceptive power is of vast impor- 
tance' in practical life, as it leads to quick judgment 
and action when personal examination into details 
would be impossible. 

In apperception we never pass from the known 
to things which are entirely new. Absolutely new 
knowledge is gained by perception or intuition. 
When an older person meets with something totally 
new, he either does not notice it or it staggers him. 
Apperception does not take place. In many cases 
we are disturbed or frightened, as children, by some 
new or sudden noise or object. 

Parkman, in his description of the Indians of Fort 
Laramie, gives a good illustration of their limited 
powers of apperception : " They were bent on inspect- 
ing everything in the room ; our equipments and our 
dress aUke underwent their scrutiny ; for though the 
contrary has been carelessly asserted, few beings 
have more curiosity than Indians in regard to sub- 
jects within their ordinary range of thought. As to 



268 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

other matters, indeed, they seemed utterly indiffer- 
ent. They will not trouble themselves to inquire into 
what they cannot comprehend, but are quite con- 
tented to place their hands over their mouths in token 
of wonder, and exclaim that it is 'great medicine.' 
With this comprehensive solution an Indian never is 
at a loss. He never launches forth into speculation 
and conjecture ; his reason moves in its beaten track. 
His soul is dormant ; and no exertions of the mission- 
aries, Jesuit or Puritan, of the Old World or of the 
New, have as yet availed to rouse it." " California 
and Oregon Trail," Chap. IX. 

This reminds us also of the Esquimaux who were 
taken through the streets of London. To the sur- 
prise of many, they passed stolidly along without 
noticing the interesting and strange sights. They 
had not the kind of experience necessary to interpret 
what they saw. 

But most so-called new things bear sufficient re- 
semblance to things seen before to admit of explana- 
tion. Strange as the sights of a Chinese city might 
appear, we should still know that we were in a city. 
In most "new" objects of observation or study, the 
familiar parts greatly preponderate over the unfamil- 
iar. In a new reading lesson, for example, most of 
the words and ideas are well known ; only an occa- 
sional word requires explanation, and that by using 
familiar illustrations. The flood of our familiar and 
oft-repeated ideas sweeps on like a great river, 



APPERCEPTION 269 

receiving here and there from either side a tributary 
stream, that is swallowed up in its waters without 
perceptible increase. 

So strong is the apperceiving force of familiar 
notions that they drag far-distant scenes in geography 
and history into the home neighborhood and locate 
them there. The imagination works in conjunction 
with the apperceiving faculty and constructs real 
pictures. Children are otherwise inclined to sub- 
stitute one thing for another by imagination. With 
boys and girls, geographical objects about home are 
often converted by fancy into representatives of 
distant places. It is related of Byron that while 
reading in childhood the story of the Trojan War, he 
localized all the places in the region of his home. 
An old hill and castle looking toward the plain and 
the sea were his Troy. The stream flowing through 
the plain was the Simois. The places of famous con- 
flicts between the Trojans and Greeks were located. 
So vivid were the pictures which these home scenes 
gave to the child, that years later, in visiting Asia Minor 
and the site of the real Troy, he was not so deeply 
impressed as in his childhood. Rein relates that he 
and his companions, while reading the Indian stories 
of Cooper, located the important scenes in the hills 
and valleys about Eisenach in the Thuringian Moun- 
tains. Many other illustrations of the same imagina- 
tive tendency to substitute home objects for foreign 
ones are given. But whether or not this experience 



2/0 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

is true of us all, it is certain that we can form no idea 
of foreign places and events except as we construct 
the pictures out of the fragments of things that we 
have known. What we have seen of rivers, lands, 
and cities must form the materials for picturing to 
ourselves distant places. This power of apperception 
to draw things far distant in place and time into the 
home surroundings is an extreme illustration of the 
tendency of all incoming knowledge to encamp close 
around the child's centre of being, his home and 
neighborhood experience. Just as a child's speech, 
his tones and accent, throughout hfe, betray his early 
home life and surroundings, so all his ideas are 
colored by the thoughts of his childhood. All his 
later interpretations of knowledge rest upon this 
foundation. 

The opposite of this is not seldom met in our teach- 
ing and reveals what a travesty is learning without 
such interpretation. Dr. Dewey says, " While I was 
visiting in the city of Moline a few 'years ago, the 
superintendent told me that they found many children 
every year who were surprised to learn that the 
Mississippi River in the text-book had anything 
to do with the stream of water flowing past their 
homes." 

Since the old ideas have so much to do with the 
proper reception of the new, let us examine more 
closely the interaction of the two. If a new idea 
drops into the mind, like a stone upon the surface 



APPERCEPTION 



271 



of the water, it produces a commotion. It acts as 
a stimulus or wakener to the old ideas sleeping 
beneath the surface. It draws them up above the 
surface level ; that is, into consciousness. But what 
ideas are thus disturbed ? There are thousands of 
these latent ideas, embryonic thoughts, beneath the 
surface. Those which possess sufficient kinship to 
this newcomer to hear his call, respond. For in the 
mind "birds of a feather flock together." Ideas and 
thoughts which resemble the new one answer; the 
others sleep on undisturbed, except a few who are so 
intimately associated with these kinsmen as to be 
disturbed when they are disturbed. Or, to state 
it differently, certain thought-groups, or complexes, 
which contain elements kindred to the new notion, 
are agitated and raised into conscious thought. They 
seem to respond to their names. The new idea may 
continue for some time to stimulate and agitate. 
There appears to be a sort of telegraphic inquiry 
through the regions of the mind to find out where the 
kindred dwell. The distant relatives and strangers 
(the unrelated or serviceable ideas) soon discover 
that they have responded to the wrong call and drop 
back to sleep again. But the real kindred wake up 
more and more. They come forward to inspect the 
newcomer and to examine his credentials. Soon he 
finds that he is surrounded by inquisitive friends 
and relatives. They threaten even to take possession 
of him. 



2/2 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

Up to this point the new idea has taken the lead, 
he has been the aggressor. But now is the time for 
the awakened kindred ideas to assume control and 
lead the stranger captive, to bring him in among 
themselves and give him his appropriate place and 
importance. The old body of ideas, when once set 
in motion, is more powerful than any single-handed 
stranger that happens to fall into their company. 
The outcome is that the stranger, who at first seemed 
to be producing such a sensation, now discovers that 
strong arms are about him and he is carried captive by 
vigorous friends. New ideas when first entering the 
mind are very strong, and, if they come through the 
senses, are especially rich in the color and vigor of 
real life. They therefore absorb the attention at first 
and seem to monopolize the mental energies ; but the 
older thought masses, when fully aroused, are better 
organized, more firmly rooted in habit, and possess 
much wider connections. They are almost certain, 
therefore, to apperceive the new idea; that is, to 
conquer and subdue it, to make it tributary to their 
power. 

Let us examine more closely the effect of the 
process of apperception upon the new and old ideas 
that are brought in contact. First, observe the effect 
upon the new. Many a new idea which is not strong 
enough in itself to make a lasting impression upon 
the mind would quickly fade out and be forgotten 
were it not that in this process the old ideas throw it 



APPERCEPTION 



273 



into a clear light, give it more meaning, associate it 
closely with themselves, and thus save it. Two per- 
sons look at the sword of Washington ; one examines it 
with deep interest, the other scarcely gives it a second 
glance. The one remembers it for life, the other for- 
gets it in an hour. The sense perception was the 
same in both persons at first, but the reception given 
to the idea by one converts it into a lasting treasure. 
A little lampblack, rolled up between the finger and 
thumb, suggested to Edison his carbon points for the 
electric light. A piece of lampblack would produce 
no such effect in most people's minds. The difference 
is in the reception accorded to an idea. The meaning 
and importance of an idea or event depend upon the 
interpretation put upon it by our previous experience. 
Lange's "Apperception," De Garmo's edition, p. 21, 
says : — 

" Many a weak, obscure, and fleeting perception 
would pass almost unnoticed into obscurity, did not the 
additional activity of apperception hold it fast in con- 
sciousness. This sharpens the senses, i.e. it gives 
to the organs of sense a greater degree of energy, so 
that the watching eye now sees, and the listening 
ear hears, that which ordinarily would pass unno- 
ticed. The events of apperception give to the senses 
a peculiar keenness, which underlies the skill of the 
money-changer in detecting a counterfeit among a 
thousand bank-notes, notwithstanding its deceptive 
similarity; of the jeweller who marks the slightest. 



274 



THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 



apparently imperceptible, flaw in an ornament; of the 
physicist who perceives distinctly the overtones of 
a vibrating string. According to this we see and 
hear not only with the eye and ear, but quite as much 
with the help of our present knowledge, with the 
apperceiving content of the mind." 

Some even intelligent and sensible people can walk 
through Westminster Abbey and see nothing but a 
curious old church with a few graves and monuments. 
To a person well versed in English history and litera- 
ture it is a shrine of poets, a temple of heroes, the 
common resting-place of statesmen and kings. 

Now, what is the effect on the old ideas } 
Every idea that newly enters the mind produces 
changes in the older groups and series of thought. 
Any one new idea may cause but sHght changes, but 
the constant influx of new experiences works steadily 
at a modification and rearrangement of our previous 
stores of thought. Faulty and incomplete groups and 
concepts are corrected or enlarged ; that is, changed 
from psychical into logical notions. Children are 
surprised to find little flowers on the oaks, maples, 
walnuts, and other large forest trees. On account of 
the small size of the blossoms, heretofore unnoticed, 
they had not thought of the great trees as belonging 
to the flowering plants. Their notion of flowering 
plants is, therefore, greatly enlarged by a few new 
observations. The bats flying about in the twilight 
have been regarded as birds ; but a closer inspection 



APPERCEPTION 2/5 

shows that they belong to another class, and the 
notion "bird" must be limited, and the other class 
enlarged. As already observed in the discussion 
of induction, most of our psychical notions are thus 
faulty and incomplete, e.g. the ideas fruit, fish, star, 
insect, mineral, ship, church, clock, dog, kitchen, 
library, lawyer, city, etc. Our notions of these and 
of hundreds of other such classes are at first both 
incomplete and faulty. The inflow of new ideas con- 
stantly modifies them, extending, limiting, explaining, 
and correcting our previous concepts. 

Sometimes, however, a single new thought may 
have wide-reaching effects ; it may even revolution- 
ize one's previous modes of thinking and reorganize 
one's activities about a new centre. With Luther, 
for instance, the idea of justification by faith was a 
new and potent force, breaking up and rearranging 
his old forms of thought. St. Paul's vision on the 
way to Damascus is a still more striking illustration 
of the power of a new idea or conviction. And yet, 
even in such cases, the old ideas reassert themselves 
with great persistence and power. Luther and Paul 
remained, even after these great changes, in many 
respects the same kind of men as before. Their old 
habits of thinking were modified, not destroyed ; the 
direction of their lives was changed, but many of 
their habits and characteristics remained almost 
unaltered. 

Apperception, however, is not limited to the effects 



2/6 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

of external objects upon us, to the influence of ideas 
coming from without upon our old stores of knowl- 
edge. Old ideas, long since stored in the mind, may 
be freshly called up and brought into such contact 
with each other that new results follow, new apper- 
ceptions take place. In moments of reflection we are 
often surprised by conclusions that had not presented 
themselves to us before. A new light dawns upon us, 
and we are surprised at not having seen it before. In 
fact, it makes little difference whether the idea sug- 
gested to the mind comes from within or from with- 
out, if when it once enters fairly into consciousness 
it has power to stimulate other thoughts, to wake up 
whole thought complexes, and bring about a process 
of action and reaction between itself and others. The 
result is new associations, new conclusions, new men- 
tal products — apperceptions. This inner appercep- 
tion, as it has been sometimes called, takes place 
constantly when we are occupied with our own 
thoughts rather than with external impressions. 
With persons of deep, steady, reflective habits, it is 
the chief means of organizing their mental stores. 
The feelings and the will have much, also, to do with 
this process. 

The laws of association draw the feelings as much 
as the intellectual states into apperceptive acts. I 
hear of a friend who has had disasters in business 
and has lost his whole fortune. If I have never 
experienced such difficulties myself, the chances are 



APPERCEPTION 2/7 

that the news will not make a deep impression upon 
me. But if I have once gone through the despond- 
ency of such a crushing defeat, sympathy for my 
friend will be awakened, and I may feel his trouble 
almost as my own. The meaning of such an item 
of news depends upon the response which it finds in 
my own feelings. It is well known that those friends 
can best sympathize with us in our trouble who have 
passed through the same troubles. Even enemies are 
not lacking in sympathy with each other when an 
appeai is made to deep feeUngs and experiences 
common to both. A good example of this is the 
story told of the two opposing armies, encamped one 
night on opposite sides of the river in Virginia during 
the Civil War. In the darkness each shore resounded 
with its own war songs, expressing its feelings of 
loyalty and defiance. At length some one started 
up " Home, Sweet Home." Gradually it spread 
through both armies, and was sung with enthusiasm 
as they were mastered and swept along by its deep 
common sentiment. 

The growth of the better sympathies, by system- 
atic extension and enlargement, so as to form strong 
apperceptive masses on the basis of family and social 
life and of religious devotion, is fully as important 
as intellectual culture, and it is the great means for 
bringing children gradually into apperceptive touch 
with social, political, and industrial life with its diffi- 
cult problems. 



278 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

The feeling of interest, which we have emphasized 
so much, is chiefly, if not wholly, dependent upon 
apperceptive conditions. Select a lesson adapted to 
the age and understanding of a child, present it in 
such a way as to recall and make use of his previous 
experience, and interest is certain to follow. The 
outcome of a successful act of apperception is always 
a feeling of pleasure, or at least of interest. When 
the principle of apperception is fully applied in teach- 
ing, the progress from one point to another is so 
gradual and clear that it gives pleasure. A child is 
always deHghted to find that he can make use of his 
previous knowledge. The clearness and understand- 
ing with which we receive knowledge adds greatly to 
our interest in it. On the contrary, when appercep- 
tion is violated, and new knowledge is only half 
understood and assimilated, there can be but little 
feeling of satisfaction. 

Lange's ** Apperception," p. 19, says: — 
" The overcoming of certain difficulties, the acces- 
sion of numerous ideas, the success of the act of 
knowledge or recognition, the greater clearness that 
the ideas have gained, awaken a feeling of pleasure. 
We become conscious of the growth of our knowledge 
and power of understanding. The significance of 
this new impression for our ego is now more strongly 
felt than at the beginning or during the course of the 
progress. To this pleasurable feeling is easily added 
the effort, at favorable opportunity, to reproduce the 



APPERCEPTION 2/9 

product of the apperception, to supplement and deepen 
it, to unite it to other ideas, and so further to extend 
certain chains of thought. The summit or sum of 
these states of mind we happily express with the 
word "interest." For in reaUty the feehng of self 
appears between the various stages of the process 
of apperception {interesse)\ with one's whole soul 
does one contemplate the object of attention. If 
we regard the acquired knowledge as the objective 
result of apperception, interest must be regarded as 
the subjective side." 

Finally, the will has much to do with conscious 
efforts at apperception. It holds the thought to 
certain groups ; it excludes or pushes back irrele- 
vant ideas that crowd in ; it holds to a steady com- 
parison of ideas, even where perplexity and obscurity 
trouble the thinker. When the process of reaching 
a conclusion takes much time, when conflict or con- 
tradiction have to be removed or adjusted, when re- 
flection and reasoning are necessary, the will is of 
great importance in giving coherency and steadiness 
to the apperceptive effort. A conscious effort at 
apperception, therefore, may include many elements, 
sense perceptions, ideas recalled, feeling, will. 
Lange's "Apperception," p. 41, says: — 
" Let us now sum up the essentials in the process 
of apperception. First of all, an external or internal 
perception, an idea, or idea-complex appears in con- 
sciousness, finding more or less response in the mind; 



280 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

that is, giving rise to greater or less stimulation to 
thought and feeling. 

" In consequence of this, and in accordance with the 
psychical mechanism or an impulse of the will, one 
or more groups of thoughts arise, which enter into 
relation to the perception. While the two masses 
are compared with one another, they work upon 
one another with more or less of a transforming 
power. New thought combinations are formed, until, 
finally, the perception is adjusted to the stronger and 
older thought combination. In this way all the 
factors concerned gain in value as to knowledge 
and feeling ; especially, however, does the new idea 
gain a clearness and activity that it never would 
have gained for itself. Apperception is, therefore, 
that psychical activity by which individual percep- 
tions, ideas, or idea-complexes are brought into rela- 
tion to our previous intellectual and emotional life, 
assimilated with it, and thus raised to greater clear- 
ness, activity, and significance." 

Importa7it Conchcsio7ts drawn from a Study of 
Apperception 

First. Value of previous knowledge. If knowl- 
edge once acquired is so valuable, we are, first of all, 
urged to make the acquisition permanent. Thorough 
mastery and frequent reviews are necessary to make 
knowledge stick. Careless and superficial study is 



APPERCEPTION 28 1 

injurious. It is sometimes carelessly remarked by 
those who are supposed to be wise in educational 
doctrine, that it makes no difference how much we 
forget, if we only have proper drill and training to 
study. But viewed in the Hght of apperception, 
acquired knowledge should be retained and used, 
for it unlocks the door to more knowledge. Thor- 
ough mastery and retention of the elements of 
knowledge in the different branches is the only 
solid road to progress. In this connection we can 
see the importance of learning only what is worth 
remembering, what will prove a valuable treasure 
in future study. In the selection of materials for 
school studies, therefore, we must keep in mind 
knowledge which, as Comenius says, is of solid 
utility. Knowledge which is thus useful is in itself 
a strong element of power, because it is a direct 
means of interpreting and mastering the world. 
Much of the knowledge gained in schools for mere 
disciplinary purposes is not, in the apperceptive 
sense, a source of power. It may be, indeed, mere 
pedantry and pretence, and even self-deception. 
The doctrine of apperception has laid the axe to 
the root of that ancient tree known as pure formal 
discipline. 

Second. The use of our acquired stock of ideas 
involves a constant working over of old ideas, and this 
working-over process not only reviews and strengthens 
past knowledge, keeping it from forgetfulness, but it 



282 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

throws new light upon it and exposes it to a many- 
sided criticism. In the first place, familiar ideas 
should not be allowed to rest in the mind unused. 
Like tools for service they must be kept bright and 
sharp. One reason why so many of the valuable 
ideas we have acquired have gradually disappeared 
from the mind is because they remained so long 
unused that they faded out of sight. The old saying 
that " repetition is the mother of studies " needs to 
be recalled and emphasized from a new point of view. 
By being put in contact with new ideas, old notions 
are seen and appreciated in new relations. Facts 
that have long lain unexplained in the mind, suddenly 
receive a new interpretation, a vivid and rational 
meaning ; or the old meaning is intensified and vivi- 
fied by putting a new fact in conjunction with it. 

When the climate and products of the British Isles 
have been previously studied in political geography, 
and the Gulf Stream is explained later in its bearings 
on the climate of western Europe, the whole subject 
of the climate of England is viewed from a new and 
interesting standpoint. In arithmetic, where the sum 
of the squares of the two sides of a right-angled triangle 
is illustrated by an example, and later on in geometry 
the same proposition is taken up in a different way 
and proved as a universal truth, new and interesting 
light is thrown upon an old problem of arithmetic. 
In United States history, after the Revolution has 
been studied, the biography of a man like Samuel 



APPERCEPTION 283 

Adams throws much additional and vivid Hght upon 
the events and the actors in Boston and Massa- 
chusetts. The life of John Adams would give a still 
different view of the same great events ; just as a city, 
as seen from different standpoints, presents different 
aspects. 

Third. In the acquisition of new knowledge apper- 
ception has its special field of conquest. Every day 
of his life, especially in school, a child should be run- 
ning up against new forms of knowledge, which need 
to be understood and mastered. The pupil should 
learn how to approach new knowledge intelligently 
not awkwardly, stupidly, and mechanically. He 
should not multiply because he is told to, nor memo- 
rize because he can't understand. But he should 
learn to think, and thinking in this case consists in 
bringing to bear his previous experience upon this 
new thing. Successful apperception has two imme- 
diate results. It gives a quicker insight into the new 
and produces a feeling of pleasure and satisfaction at 
the same time. Moreover, this is accomplished by the 
child's self-activity and not by any dextrous shifting 
of the load on to the shoulders of the teachers. 

Fourth. We have thus far shown that new ideas 
are more easily understood and assimilated when they 
are brought into close contact with what we already 
know ; and secondly, that our old knowledge is often 
explained and illuminated by new facts brought to 
bear upon it. We may now observe the result of this 



284 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

double action — the welding of old and new into one 
piece, the close mingling and association of all our 
knowledge, i.e. its unity. Apperception, therefore, 
has the same final tendency that was observed in the 
inductive process, the unification of knowledge, the 
concentration of all experience by uniting its parts 
into groups and series. The smith, in welding to- 
gether two pieces of iron, heats both and then ham- 
mers them together into one piece. The teacher has 
something similar to do. He must revive old ideas 
in the child's mind, then present the new facts and 
bring the two things together while they are still 
fresh, so as to cause them to coalesce. To prove this, 
observe how long division may be best taught. Call 
up and review the method of short division, then pro- 
ceed to work a problem in long division, calling atten- 
tion to the similar steps and processes in the two, and 
finally to the difference between them. 

The defect of much teaching in children's classes 
is that the teacher does not properly provide for the 
welding together of the new and old. The important 
practical question after all is whether instructors see 
to it that children recall their previous knowledge. 
It is necessary to take special pains in this. Nothing 
is more common than to find children forgetting the 
very things which, if remembered, would explain the 
difficult point in the lesson. Teachers are often sur- 
prised that children have forgotten things once 
learned. But, in an important sense, we encourage 



APPERCEPTION 285 

children to forget by not calling into use their acqui- 
sitions. Lessons are learned too much each by itself, 
without reference to what precedes or what follows, 
or what effect this lesson of to-day may have upon 
things learned a year ago. Putting it briefly, children 
and teachers do not think enough, pondering things 
over in their minds, relating facts with each other, 
and bringing all knowledge into unity and into a 
clear comprehension. The habit of thoughtful- 
ness, engendered by a proper combining of old and 
new, is one of the valuable results of a good educa- 
tion. It gives the mind a disposition to glance back- 
ward or forward, to judge of all old ideas from 
a broader, more intelligent standpoint. Thinking 
everything over in the light of the best experience 
we can bring to bear upon it, prevents us from jump- 
ing at conclusions. 

Fifth. Again, if we accept the doctrine that old 
ideas are the materials out of which we constantly 
build bridges across into new fields of knowledge, 
we must know the children better, and what store 
of knowledge they have already acquired. Just as 
an army marching into a new country must know 
well the country through which it has passed, and 
must keep open the line of communication and the 
base of supplies, so the student must always have 
a safe retreat into his past, and a base of supplies 
to sustain him in his onward movements. The 
tendency is very strong for a grade teacher to think 



286 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

that she needs to know nothing except the facts to 
be acquired in her own grade. But she should re- 
member that her grade is only a station on the high- 
way to learning and life. In teaching we cannot by 
any shift dispense with the ideas children have gained 
at home, at play, in the school, and outside of it. 
This, in connection with what the child has learned 
in the previous grades, constitutes a stock of ideas, 
a capital, upon v/hich the teacher should freely draw 
in illustrating daily lessons. 

Sixth. The general plan of all studies is based 
upon this notion of acquiring knowledge by the 
assistance of accumulated funds. In arithmetic it 
would be folly to begin with long division before 
the multiplication table is learned. In geometry, 
later propositions depend upon earlier principles and 
demonstrations. In Latin, vocabularies and inflec- 
tions and syntactical relations must be mastered 
before readiness in the use of language is reached. 
And so it is to a large degree in the general plan of 
all studies. In spite of this, no principle is more 
commonly violated in daily recitations than that of 
apperception. Its value is self-evident as a principle 
for the arrangement of topics in any branch of study, 
but it is overlooked in daily lessons. Instead of this, 
new knowledge is acquired by a thoughtless memory 
drill. 

Seventh. In this welding process we desire to 
determine how far an actual concentration may take 



APPERCEPTION 28/ 

place between school studies and the home and out- 
side life of children. The stock of ideas and feeHngs 
which a child from its infancy has gathered from its 
peculiar history and home surroundings is the primi- 
tive basis of its personality. Its thoughts, feelings, 
and individuality are deeply interwoven with home 
experience. No other set of ideas, later acquired, 
lies so close to its heart or is so abiding in its 
memory. The memory of work and play at home ; 
of the house, yard, trees, and garden, of parents, 
brothers, and sisters ; and, in addition to this, the 
experiences connected with neighbors and friends, 
the town and surrounding country, the church and 
its influence, the holidays, games, and celebrations, — 
all these things lie deeper in the minds of children 
than the facts learned about grammar, geography, 
or history in school. Any plan of education that 
ignores these home-bred ideas, these events, memo- 
ries, and sympathies of home and neighborhood life, 
will make a vital mistake. A concentration that 
keeps in mind only the school studies and disregards 
the rich fund of ideas that every child brings from 
his home, must be a failure, because it only includes 
the weaker half of his experience. Home knowledge 
itself may not always be made a concentrating centre, 
but all its best materials must be drawn into the 
concentrating centre of the school. Yet children 
bring many faulty, mistaken, and even vicious ideas 
from their homes. It is well to know the actual 



288 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

situation. It is the work of the school, at every step, 
while receiving, to correct, enlarge, or arrange the 
faulty or disordered knowledge brought into the 
school by children. We unconsciously use these 
materials, and depend upon them for explaining new 
lessons, more constantly than we are aware of. In 
fact, if we were wise teachers, we would consciously 
make a more frequent use of them and, in order to 
render them more valuable, take special pains to 
review, correct, and arrange them. We would teach 
children to observe more closely and to remember 
better the things they daily see. 

We shall appreciate better the value of home 
knowledge if we take note of the direct and constant 
dependence of the most important studies upon it. 
We usually think of history as something far away 
in New England, or France, or Egypt. History is 
mainly the study of the actions, customs, homes, and 
institutions of men in different countries. But what 
an abundance of similar facts and observations a 
child has gathered about home before he begins the 
study of history ! From his infancy he has seen 
people of all sorts and conditions, rich and poor, 
ignorant and learned, honorable and mean. He has 
seen all sorts of human actions, learned to know 
their meaning and to pass judgment upon them. 
He has seen houses, churches, public buildings, trade 
and commerce, and a hundred human institutions. 
The child has been studying human actions and 



APPERCEPTION 289 

institutions in the concrete for a dozen years before 
he begins to read and recite history from books. 
Without the knowledge thus acquired out of school, 
society, government, and institutions would be worse 
than Greek. Geography, as taught in the books, 
would be totally foreign and strange but for the 
abundance of ideas the child has already picked up 
about hills, streams, roads, travel, storms, trees, 
animals, and people. 

Natural science lessons must be based on a more 
careful study of things already seen about home 
— rocks and streams, flowers and plants, animals 
wild and tame. These, with the forests, fields, 
brooks, seasons, tools, and inventions, are the neces- 
sary object lessons in natural science which can serve 
daily to illustrate other lessons. How near, then, do 
the natural science topics, geography and history, 
stand to the daily home life of a child ! How inti- 
mate should be the relations which the school should 
establish between the parts of a child's experience ! 
This is concentration in the broadest sense. A 
proper appreciation of this principle will save us 
from a number of common errors. Besides con- 
stantly associating home and school knowledge, we 
shall try to know the home and parents better, and 
the disposition and surroundings of each child. We 
shall be ready at any time to render home knowledge 
more clear and accurate, to correct faulty observation 
and opinion. While the children will be encouraged 



290 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

to illustrate lessons from their own experience, we 
shall fall into the excellent habit of explaining new 
and difficult points by a direct appeal to what the 
pupils have seen and understood. In short, there 
will be a disposition to draw into the concentrating 
work of the school all the deeper but outside life- 
experiences which form so important an element in 
the character of every person, which, however, 
teachers so often overlook. No other institution has 
such an opportunity or power to concentrate knowl- 
edge and experience as the school. 

Eighth. Another valuable educative result of ap- 
perception, cultivated in this manner, is a conscious- 
ness of power which springs from the ability to make 
a good use of our knowledge. The oftener children 
become aware that they have made a good use of 
acquired knowledge, the more they are encouraged. 
They see the treasure growing in their hands, and 
feel conscious of their ability to use it. There is a 
mental exhilaration Uke that coming from abundant 
physical strength and health. 

Ninth. The apperceptive process, by bringing to- 
gether kindred ideas, constantly works toward the 
development of our concepts or general notions. 
The crude classifications made by children in earlier 
years are steadily enlarged, revised, and clarified by 
the corrective influence of kindred incoming ideas. 
This is the natural process of converting the imper- 
fect psychical notions into well-defined, logical con- 



APPERCEPTION 29 1 

cepts. In a still broader sense certain strong centres 
of thought and feeling are built up which become 
dominant, and lead to well-established habits of judg- 
ing and acting. The student of biology begins to 
interpret all phenomena by biological analogies, the 
clergyman projects scriptural language and imagery 
into every experience, the boy may think of nothing 
but hunting and adventure, and, if this single apper- 
ception mass of thought and feeling becomes too 
strong, it will assert complete control, to the detri- 
ment 'of education. 

These centres of thought and feeling, apperception 
masses, as they are called, need to be built up firm 
and well compacted in every important branch of 
study and experience, if character is to be well- 
balanced and liberal. Each important study in the 
school course is designed to build up and establish a 
few of these powerful apperceptive centres, while the 
school course as a whole is designed to organize and 
combine all the centres of life in subordination to 
ethical ideals. This, however, is only another mode 
of saying that the ethical centres must be the most 
powerful of all. But ethical ideals are capable of 
becoming just such strongholds of character if edu- 
cation will do its proper work. 

Tenth. It is the peculiar task of the teacher to 
guide the child in the process of acquisition, to super- 
vise this interaction of old and new. To do this 
successfully he must know how to use skilfully the 



292 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

apperceptive masses previously formed by the chil- 
dren. In asking questions he must know how to 
find the word which will touch off these latent 
thought energies. This requires much delicacy and 
sympathetic skill on the teacher's part. An apt 
question may be the key which unlocks the child's 
treasure-house. An appeal to their own feeling or 
experience may act like a flood of sunshine. The 
teacher should be in search of the key words or 
questions which touch vitally the apperception cen- 
tres of the child's experience. This will save a great 
deal of time and worry. Sometimes the teacher asks 
a question or sets a problem which wholly misses the 
child's apperception mass, as when the teacher asked 
the children to write about the robin, and what they 
saw him doing on the way to school. One little fel- 
low wrote, " I ain't saw no robin, and he wasn't doin' 
nothin'." 

Lange's " Apperception," edited by De Garmo, be- 
ginning at page 99, is as follows : — 

" Let us look back again at the results of our 
investigation. We observe first what essential ser- 
vices apperception performs for the human mind in 
the acquisition of new ideas, and for what an extraor- 
dinary easement and unburdening the acquiring 
soul is indebted to it. Should apperception once 
fail, or were it not implied in the very nature of our 
minds, we should, in the reception of sense-impres- 
sions, daily expend as much power as the child in its 



APPERCEPTION 293 

earliest years, since the perpetually changing objects 
of the external world would nearly always appear 
strange and new. We should gain the mastery of 
external things more slowly and painfully, and arrive 
much later at a certain conclusion of our external 
experience than we do now, and thereby remain per- 
ceptibly behind in our mental development. Like 
children with their ABC, we should be forced to 
take careful note of each word, and not, as now, 
allow ourselves actually to perceive only a few words 
in each sentence. In a word, without apperception 
our minds, with strikingly greater and more exhaust- 
ive labor, would attain relatively smaller results. 
Indeed, we are seldom conscious of the extent to 
which our perception is supported by apperception ; 
of how it releases the senses from a large part of 
their labor, so that in reality we listen usually with 
half an ear or with a divided attention ; nor, on the 
other hand, do we ordinarily reflect that apperception 
lends the sense organs a greater degree of energy, so 
that they perceive with greater sharpness and penetra- 
tion than were otherwise possible. We do not consider 
that apperception spares us the trouble of examining 
ever anew and in small detail all the objects and 
phenomena that present themselves to us, so as to get 
their meaning, or that it thus prevents our mental 
power from scattering and from being worn out with 
wearisome, fruitless detail labors. The secret of its 
extraordinary success lies in the fact that it refers the 



294 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

new to the old, the strange to the familiar, the un- 
known to the known, that which is not comprehended 
to what is already understood, and thus constitutes a 
part of our mental furniture ; that it transforms the 
difficult and unaccustomed into the accustomed, and 
causes us to grasp everything new by means of old- 
time, well-known ideas. Since, then, it accomplishes 
great and unusual results by small means, in so far 
as it reserves for the soul the greatest amount of 
power for other purposes, it agrees with the gen- 
eral principle of the least expenditure of force, 
or with that of the best adaptabiUty of means to 
ends. 

" As in the reception of new impressions, so also 
in working over and developing the previously ac- 
quired content of the mind, the helpful work of 
apperception shows itself. By connecting isolated 
things with mental groups already formed, and by 
assigning to the new its proper place among them, 
apperception not only increases the clearness and 
definiteness of ideas, but knits them more firmly to 
our consciousness. Apperceiving ideas are the best 
aids to memory. Again, so often as it subordinates 
new impressions to older ones, it labors at the associ- 
ation and articulation of the manifold materials of 
perception and thought. By condensing the content 
of observation and thinking into concepts and rules, 
or general experiences and principles, or ideals and 
general notions, apperception produces connection 



APPERCEPTION 295 

and order in our knowledge and volition. With its 
assistance there springs up those universal thought 
complexes which, distributed to the various fields to 
which they belong, appear as logical, linguistic, aes- 
thetic, moral, and religious norms or principles. If 
these acquire a higher degree of value for our feel- 
ings, if we find ourselves heartily attached to them, so 
that we prefer them to all those things which are con- 
tradictory, if we bind them to our own self, they will 
thus become powerful mental groups, which spring up 
independent of the psychical mechanism as often as 
kindred ideas appear in the mind. In the presence 
of these they now make manifest their apperceiving 
power. We measure and estimate them now accord- 
ing to universal laws. They are, so to speak, the 
eyes and hand of the will, with which, regulating and 
supplementing, rejecting and correcting, it lays a 
grasp upon the content as well as upon the succes- 
sion of ideas. They hinder the purely mechanical 
flow of thought and desire, and our involuntary ab- 
sorption in external impressions and in the varied 
play of fancy. We learn how to control religious 
impulses by laws, to rule thoughts by thoughts. In 
the place of the mechanical, appears the regulated 
course of thinking ; in the place of the psychical rule 
of caprice, the monarchical control of higher laws 
and principles, and the spontaneity of the ego as the 
kernel of the personality. By the aid of appercep- 
tion, therefore, we are lifted gradually from psychical 



296 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

bondage to mental and moral freedom. And now 
when ideal norms are apperceivingly active in the 
field of knowledge and thought, of feeling and will, 
when they give laws to the psychical mechanism, 
true culture is attained." 



CHAPTER VII 

THE WILL 

We have now completed the discussion of the con- 
cept-bearing or inductive process in learning and 
apperception, and find that they both tend to the uni- 
fying of knowledge and to the awakening of strong 
and legitimate interest. 

It now remains to be seen how the will is related 
to all this mental machinery, how the will grows up 
in the midst of these activities, part and parcel of 
them, and gradually emerges into dominancy. For 
it would be a great pity if all this splendid machinery 
of intellect and feeling could not be unified under one 
executive. 

The will is the power of the mind which deliberates, 
chooses, decides, controls action. 

According to psychology there are three distinct 
activities of the mind, — knowing, feeling, and willing. 
These three powers are related to one another as co- 
ordinates, and yet the will should become the mon- 
arch of the mind. It is expected that all the other 
activities of the mind will be brought into subjection 
to the will. For strong character resides in the will. 
Strength of character depends upon the mastery 

297 



298 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

which the will has acquired over the life; and the 
formation of character, as shown in a strong moral 
will, is the highest aim of education. 

The great problem for us to solve is, first, How far 
can the deliberate purpose and plan of education con- 
tribute to the evolution of a right will ? 

There is an apparent contradiction in saying that 
the will is the monarch of the mind, the power which 
must control and subject all the other powers; and 
yet that it can be trained, educated, moulded, and 
chiefly, too, by a proper cultivation of the other 
powers, feeling and knowing. Knowledge and feel- 
ing, while they are subject to the will, still constitute 
its strength, just as the soldiers and officers of an 
army are subject to a commander and yet make him 
powerful. 

Our modern psychology assumes that the will, like 
bodily and other mental powers, is subject to a process 
of evolution, that is, the will develops gradually from 
the lower and obscure impulses and instincts up 
through the higher phases of interest and desire, and 
eventually through submission to moral obligation and 
conscience, to free will in the moral sense. Putting 
it very briefly, the will, in its earlier stages, at least, is 
plastic and educable. 

Dexter and Garlick, in their " Psychology in the 
Schoolroom," p. 283, say : — 

" The growth and development of the will can be 
measured by the type of movement involved. Move- 



THE WILL 299 

ments are either voluntary or involuntary ; that is, 
they either involve an act of conscious willing, or they 
do not. 

" The involuntary are the first to appear, and in- 
clude those impulsive, reflex, and instinctive move- 
ments which are the characteristics of infancy and 
early childhood. The tendency to these movements 
is inherited, but their powers and their relations to 
the bodily wants are learnt only by experience. We 
recognize the first signs of the will in these early mus- 
cular movements, and at first they are the only indi- 
cation we have of its existence. 

" Voluntary movements embrace the higher forms, 
such as sensory, imitative, and deliberative move- 
ments. 

" Our first movements are random and reflex acts. 
The instinctive movements are a distinct advance on 
these, for they are accompanied by feeling and a 
vague form of desire. The value of instinctive 
movements in the growth of the will lies in the 
check they impose on reflex movements. They also 
represent that " untaught ability " which leads the 
young animal to perform those actions which are essen- 
tial to its existence. Instinctive movements are the will 
of the race exemplified in the will of the individual. 

"The growth of control may be observed in a 
child. At first he is a mere bundle of appetites. 
Self and immediate gratification is his policy. Any 
check produces an outburst of feeling. Meantime 



300 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

his education is proceeding, and he learns much from 
experience. He begins to learn that there are prin- 
ciples of conduct which often conflict with his im- 
pulses, but which have nevertheless to be considered. 
In the first struggles the victory invariably rests with 
impulse. There is reflection, but in too weak a state 
for the mastery of impulse. But the social feelings 
are developing, and soon there comes a time when 
the higher feeling prevails. He ceases to beat his 
drum because his mother has a headache. It is his 
first victory, but it is by no means his hardest or 
greatest. Many severe struggles are before him. 
Defeat is probably frequent, but no longer general. 
The impulse to play is strong and exacting, but it is 
put aside at times for work. The sweets and toys 
are now sometimes shared with others. Impulse is 
yielding slowly to principle. 

" This marks the general limit for young children, 
but further developments may be observed in the 
older ones. The boy will still consume unlimited 
cake, neglect his lessons, or give way to fits of tem- 
per. But other considerations are gradually forcing 
themselves upon him. He sees that gluttony impairs 
his health, laziness his reputation, and temper his 
comfort. He learns that health, reputation, comfort, 
etc., are desirable. His health is important, because 
he wants to shine in the school games ; his lessons 
receive attention, because he wishes to please his 
teacher, parents, or raise his class position." 



I 



THE WILL 301 

The will emerges gradually from its early crude 
condition of blind impulse or unconscious instinct, 
first, by joining forces with intellect and thus exposing 
itself to the light of reason, and second, by reenforc- 
ing itself with the energy of the better feelings. It 
is through the intellect and the feelings, therefore, 
that the educator can get some purchase upon the 
will, and thus help to determine the final form which 
volition takes. We need, therefore, to study closely 
the relation of will to intellect and feeling. 

The older psychologies set up the three forms of 
knowing, feeling, and will as wholly distinct, but the 
relation and even kinship between them seem much 
closer than was formerly supposed. 

William James, in his "Talks to Teachers," p. 170, 
says : — 

" All our deeds were considered by the early psy- 
chologists to be due to a peculiar faculty called the 
will, without whose fiat action could not occur. 
Thoughts and impressions, being intrinsically inac- 
tive, were supposed to produce conduct only through 
the intermediation of this superior agent. Until they 
twitched its coat-tails, so to speak, no outward be- 
havior could occur. This doctrine was long ago 
exploded by the discovery of the phenomena of 
reflex action, in which sensible impressions, as you 
know, produce movement immediately and of them- 
selves. The doctrine may also be considered ex- 
ploded as far as ideas go. 



302 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

" The fact is that there is no sort of consciousness 
whatever, be it sensation, feeling, or idea, which does 
not directly and of itself tend to discharge into some 
motor effect. The motor effect need not always be 
an outward stroke of behavior. It may be only an 
alteration of the heart-beats or breathing, or a modi- 
fication in the distribution of blood, such as blushing 
or turning pale ; or else a secretion of tears, or what 
not. But, in any case, it is there in some shape when 
any consciousness is there ; and a belief as funda- 
mental as any in modern psychology is the belief at 
last attained, that conscious processes of any sort, 
conscious processes merely as such, must pass over 
into motion, open or concealed." 

This ideo-motor character of knowledge is equalled 
on the negative side by the inhibitive power of ideas, 
by which tendencies to act are checked or prohibited. 
There is a certain propulsive energy, exhibited by 
ideas themselves, abundantly illustrated by psychol- 
ogists, by which they produce or exhibit action. 
Dexter and Garlick, in their " Psychology in the 
Schoolroom," p. 293, say : — 

"The great field of the ideo-motor class of move- 
ments is the imitative. The imitative impulse leads 
to the incessant repetition of these movements among 
children, and the growth of will is thus correspondingly 
rapid. They supply very largely that great field for 
exercise and example, which are so necessary for the 
correction, acquisition, and perfection of movements. 



THE WILL 303 

** The development of ideo-motor movements leads 
gradually to those more perfect forms of voluntary- 
movement which mark the higher stages of volition. 
The child's mind becomes stocked v/ith motor images, 
and with the constant assistance of the other elements 
he is finally enabled to reach the stage of pure vol- 
untary action." 

But the dependence of the will upon knowing is 
especially shown, also, in the illumination of the 
field of action by knowledge, and by the narrow 
limits which ignorance sets to will effort. 

Before the will can decide to do any given act, it 
must see its way clearly. It must at least beHeve in 
the possibility. In trying to get across a stream, for 
example, if one cannot swim and there is no bridge 
nor boat, nor means of making one, the will cannot 
act. It is helpless. The will must be shown the 
way to its aims, or they are impossible. The more 
clear and distinct our knowledge, the better we can 
lay our plans and will to carry them out. It would 
be impossible for one of us to will to run a steam 
engine from Chicago to New York to-day. We don't 
know how, and we should not be permitted to try. 
In every field of action we must have knowledge, 
and clear knowledge, before the will can act to good 
advantage. It is only knowledge, or at least faith in 
the possibility of accomplishing an undertaking, that 
opens the way to will. Much successful experience 
in any line of work brings increasing confidence, and 



304 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

the will is greatly strengthened, because one knows 
that certain actions are possible. The simple acqui- 
sition of facts, therefore, the increase of knowledge 
so long as it is well digested, makes it possible for 
the will to act with greater energy in various direc- 
tions. The more clear this knowledge is, the more 
thoroughly it is cemented together in its parts and 
subject to control, the greater and more effective can 
be the will action. All the knowledge we may 
acquire can be used by the will in planning and car- 
rying out its purposes. Knowledge, therefore, de- 
rived from all sources, is a means used by the will, 
and increases the possibilities of its action. 

But, secondly, there are found still more immediate 
means of stimulating and strengthening the will, 
namely, in the feeUngs. The feeHngs are more 
closely related to will than knowledge, at least in 
the sense of cause and effect. There is a gradual 
transition from the feelings up to the will, as follows : 
interest in an object, inclination, desire, and purpose, 
or will to secure it. We might say that will is only 
the final link in the chain, and the feelings and 
desires lead up to and produce the act of willing. 
Even will itself has been called a feeling by some 
psychologists and classed with the feelings. But the 
thing in which we are now most concerned is, how to 
reach and strengthen the will through the feelings. 
Some of the feelings which powerfully influence the 
will are desire of approbation, ambition, love of 



THE WILL 305 

knowledge, appreciation of the beautiful and the 
good ; or, on the other side, rivalry, envy, hate, and 
ill-will. Now, it is clear that a cultivation of the 
feelings and emotions is possible which may strongly 
influence the purposes and decisions of the will, 
either in the right or wrong direction. It is just at 
this point that education is capable of a vigorous 
influence in moulding the character of a child. The 
cultivation of the six interests already mentioned is 
little else than cultivation of the great classes of feel- 
ing,- for interest always contains a strong element of 
feeling. It is certain in any case that a child's, and 
eventually a man's, will is to be guided largely by 
his feelings. Whether any care is taken in educa- 
tion or not, feeling, good or bad, is destined to guide 
the will. Most people, as we know, are too much 
influenced by their feelings. This is apparent in the 
adage, ''Think twice before you speak." Feelings 
of malice and ill-will, of revenge and envy, of dislike 
and jealousy, get the control in many lives, because 
they have been permitted to grow and nothing better 
has been put in their place. The teacher, by select- 
ing the proper materials of study, is able to cultivate 
and strengthen such feelings as sympathy and kind- 
ness toward others ; appreciation of brave, unselfish 
acts in others ; the feeling of generosity, charity, and 
a forgiving spirit ; a love for honesty and upright- 
ness ; a desire and ambition for knowledge in many 
directions. On the other hand, the teacher may 

X 



306 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

gently instil a dislike for cowardice, meanness, self- 
ishness, laziness, and envy, and bring the child to 
master and control these evil dispositions. Not only 
is it possible to cultivate those feelings which we 
may summarize as the love of the virtues, and develop 
a dislike and turning away from vices, but this work 
of cultivating the feelings may be carried on so sys- 
tematically that great habits of feeling are formed, 
and these habits become the very strongholds of 
character. They are the forces steadily acting upon 
the will and guiding its choice. 

The discussion of the relation of feeling to will has 
centred, in recent years, around the doctrine of 
interest. In our foregoing chapter on ** Interest" we 
discussed the relation of interest to involuntary at- 
tention, and also to that phase of voluntary attention 
in which interest aids the will in maintaining atten- 
tion. This phase of auxiliary interest shows itself, 
as we saw, in apperception and in the association of 
ideas, greatly facilitating the efforts of the will in 
attention. 

There is a still more important phase of interest 
in its direct, or what we may call its causal, relation 
to will. Interest, desire, and will give us the three 
important links in the causal series that results in 
action. Assuming this causal connection between 
interest or feeling and will, many psychologists have 
spoken of interest as supplying the motive which 
prompts the will to action. Thus Ostermann, "Inter- 



THE WILL 



307 



est in its Relation to Pedagogy," p. 57, "That which 
is of no interest, an indifferent matter, exercises no 
determining influence whatever upon the will, either 
in a positive or in a negative direction." Again, " If 
the mind were merely intellect, and never from the 
beginning of its existence had felt any emotion of 
pleasure or displeasure, it would be void of all inter- 
est, and would, accordingly, not find in itself any im- 
pulse whatever to desire or will." Ostermann quotes 
a number of leading psychologists, who speak of the 
feehngs as containing the motives which impel the 
will. For example, Wundt : ** Motives are processes 
always accompanied by feeHngs, and these feelings 
turn out to be those elements of the motive in which 
the real cause of activity is contained. We would not 
will a thing if we were not stimulated by feelings." 

Dewey says, p. 18, of " Interest as related to Will" : — 

" We are now in a position to deal with the ques- 
tion of the relation of interest to desire and to effort. 
Desire and effort in their legitimate meaning are, 
both of them, phases of mediated interest. They are 
correlatives, not opposites." 

Again, p. 22, Dewey says : — 

" What, it may be asked, is the connection of this 
with the question of interest ? Precisely this : In the 
analysis of desire we are brought back exactly to the 
question of mediate interest. Normal desire is simply 
a case of properly mediated interest. The problem 
of attaining the proper balance between the impulses 



308 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

on one side and an ideal or end on the other is just 
the question of getting enough interest in the end to 
prevent a too sudden expenditure of the waste energy 
— to direct this excited energy so that it shall be 
tributary to realizing the end. Here the interest in 
the end is taken over into the means. Interest, in 
other words, marks the fact that the emotional force 
aroused is functioning. This is our definition of 
interest ; it is impulse functioning with reference to 
V an idea of self-expression. 

" Interest in the end indicates that desire is both 
calmed and steadied. Over-greedy desire, like over- 
anxious aversion, defeats itself. The youthful hunter 
is so anxious to kill his game, he is so stimulated by 
the thought of reaching his end, that he cannot con- 
trol himself sufficiently to take steady aim. He 
shoots wild. The successful hunter is not the one 
who has lost interest in his end, in killing the game, 
but the one who is able to translate this interest com- 
pletely over into the means necessary to accompHsh 
his purpose. It is no longer the kilHng of the game 
that occupies his consciousness by itself, but the 
thought of the steps he has to perform. The means, 
once more, have been identified with the end; the 
desire has become mediate interest. The ideal dies 
as bare ideal, to live again in instrumental powers." 

Again, p. 25 : " On the psychological side we find 
that interest in an end or object simply means that 
the self is finding its own movement or outlet in a 



THE WILL 



309 



certain direction, and that consequently there is a 
motive for effort, for putting forth energy, in realizing 
the desirable end. 

'* On the educational side we were led to assume 
that normal interest and effort are identical with the 
process of self-expression." 

These passages from Dr. Dewey assume the closest 
possible relation between feeling, desire, and will. 
They are parts of one outgoing movement toward 
self-expression. In the same movement also an 
intellectual element is present which perceives ends 
and ideals. 

Ostermann also finds an intellectual element in 
feeling. In reply to the argument that man should 
be governed in his desires and actions by intellect, he 
says, p. 67 : *' Our answer, in the first place, will be 
that interest, though in the beginning identical with 
feeling, changes by degrees into the form of the 
judgment of value, and that this judgment of value, 
though growing out of feeling and having motive 
power only for that reason, yet is no longer original 
feeling, but already an intellectual function of the 
mind, which in this judgment sums up and comprises 
all the single impressions of value upon feeUng. In 
this respect interest and intellectual activity do not 
absolutely exclude each other." 

At the same time the power of deliberation and 
choice rests partly upon knowledge and feeling. — 
p. 6S : ** He does not blindly follow the motive 



3IO THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

(interest) which happens to predominate in his con- 
sciousness at the moment, but — looking backward 
and forward — allows further interests to make them- 
selves felt, and deliberates on the various possibilities 
open to his activity. This reflection of intellect is, 
according to experience, of wide-reaching importance 
in our desires and decisions ; but the assertion is 
unalterable that what ultimately actuates will are 
always interests, whether they be real feelings or 
recollections and judgments of value which have 
grown out of feeling." 

The study of the psychology of knowing, feeling, 
and will in more recent times has caused us to think 
these three forms of mental action in much closer 
relation and dependence upon one another than 
formerly. We find, on the one side, that ideas have 
a marked motor tendency, feeling is still more pro- 
pulsive, and will is the preeminent propulsive energy. 
Starting from the other side, will is no longer pure 
will, but is rationalized so that it can see ends or 
ideals clearly. Feeling also is always attendant upon 
ideas, while ideas or knowledge are essentially 
intellectual. Psychologists speak of will in the broad 
sense and will in the narrow sense, meaning that there 
is a sense in which all mental life exhibits will. On 
the other side we may say that all will effort involves 
intelligence and feeling. 

This is another evidence that will is no indepen- 
dent, isolated faculty, but becomes strong and efficient 



THE WILL 311 

to the extent that it is supported by feeling and 
knowledge. These three phases of mental life, con- 
stantly present in all thought and action, constantly 
interacting upon one another and supporting one 
another, grow up in close companionship from the 
beginning. The whole structure of character be- 
comes strong and efficient just to the extent that 
these three factors are kept in closest harmony and 
at the same time check and balance one another. 

After this psychological analysis of the relation of 
will to knowledge and feeling, we are enabled to pass 
judgment upon the old doctrine of sheer will which 
has long held such an important place both in the 
theory and in the practice of education. We will dis- 
cuss it first from the standpoint of involuntary atten- 
tion ; second, of habit ; third, of voluntary attention. 
Involuntary attention, as already shown, rests upon 
interest. It is well known to teachers in primary 
grades that children have but little power of volun- 
tary attention, but their attention is easily held by 
things in which they are interested. It is now felt 
to be a mistake to make strong and constant appeal 
to voluntary attention in early childhood. It is only 
gradually that this power of voluntary effort is de- 
veloped, and to assume its existence in early school 
years is a blunder. It is one of the chief elements of 
tact in teachers to arouse and concentrate the efforts 
of children by all proper and legitimate interests so 
as to secure involuntary attention. This is the true 



312 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

method of developing will power. The growth of a 
strong habit of involuntary attention is the first and 
necessary step toward that concentration of thought 
and effort which passes over later into voluntary 
effort. Any child who cannot be led to a strong 
involuntary attention will never develop will power. 
Our conclusion is, that the appeal to sheer will is, for 
the main part, out of place in early education. 

In the later years of school life all mental activity 
tends to become fixed in habits. In fact, the tendency 
toward habit-forming begins early and becomes more 
and more marked with the years. In the first effort 
to lay out a line of thought or action, the will is 
under heavy strain, but as the habit, by repetition, 
becomes more fixed, the action is almost automatic, 
and positive will effort is reduced to a minimum. As 
the mind gradually establishes its well-beaten tracks 
along all lines of thought and action, the burden of 
will effort is largely taken away. There is a great 
easement in mental effort. Instead of the strain of 
sheer will the machinery of habit comes into play 
and carries the burden of thought or action. This is 
a second very important Hmitation upon the doctrine 
of sheer will. 

In the third place we will call up for review the 
idea of voluntary attention. In our discussion of this 
topic in the chapter on " Interest " we found that vol- 
untary attention has a much more limited scope than 
was formerly supposed. It consists, according to Pro- 



THE WILL 313 

fessor James, in instantaneous pulses of effort, while 
the steady force which maintains attention is found in 
interest. Even at this crucial point, at the very focus 
of voluntary attention, we find that interest based 
upon apperception, association of ideas, and the ap- 
propriate material of thought furnishes a mental 
machinery which shoulders the chief burden of 
effort. 

We may go a step farther than this and say with 
Dr. Dewey that sheer will is out of place in educa- 
tion,- that where there is no true interest, there is no 
true motive to mental effort. There is no aim or 
ideal set up which calls for the self-activity of the 
child and leads to self-realization. Dewey, pp. 24, 25, 
of " Interest as related to Will," says : — 

" On the other hand, effort, in the sense of strain 
because of lack in interest, is evidence of the abnor- 
mal use of effort. The necessity of effort in this 
sense indicates that the end nominally held up is not 
recognized as a form of self-expression — that it is 
external to the self and hence fails in interest. The 
conscious stirring up of effort marks simply the un- 
real strain necessarily involved in any attempt to 
reach an end which is not part and parcel of the 
self's own process. The strain is always artificial ; 
it requires external stimulation of some sort or 
other to keep it going, and always leads to exhaus- 
tion. Not only does effort in its true sense play no 
part in moral training, but it plays a distinctly im- 



314 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

moral part. The externality of the end, as witnessed 
in its failure to arouse the active impulses and to per- 
sist toward its own realization, makes it impossible 
that any strain to attain this end should have any 
other than a relatively immoral motive. Only selfish 
fear, the dread of some external power, or else purely 
mechanical habit, or else the hope of some external 
reward, some more or less subtle form of bribery, 
can be really a motive in any such instance." 

Summarizing, we may say that involuntary atten- 
tion, habit, and interest supply three powerful criti- 
cisms against the old doctrine of sheer will in 
education. The mental machinery presupposed as 
a basis of interest and habit is an indispensable 
requisite for the exercise of free will, and in interest 
is found even the motive and first step in the process 
of self-reaHzation. 

A study of the will in its relations to knowledge 
and feeling reveals that the training and develop- 
ment of the will depend upon exercise and upon 
instruction. There are two ways of exercising will 
power. First, by requiring it to obey authority 
promptly and to control the body and the mind at 
the direction of another. The discipline of a school 
may exert a strong influence upon pupils in teaching 
them concentration and will power under the direc- 
tion of another. Especially is this true in lower 
grades. Children in the first grade have but little 
power or habit of concentrating the attention. The 



1 



THE WILL 315 

will of the teacher, combined with her tact, must 
aid in developing the energies of the will in these 
little ones. The primary value of quick obedience 
in school, of exact discipline in marching, rising, 
etc., is twofold. It secures the necessary order- 
liness, and it trains the will. Even in higher and 
normal schools such a perfect discipHne has a great 
value in training to alertness and quickness of appre- 
hension associated with action. 

Secondly, by the training of the mind to freedom 
of action, to self-activity, to independence. As soon 
as children begin to develop the power of thought 
and action their self -activity should be encouraged. 
Even in the lowest grades the beginnings may be 
made. A significant aim may be set before them 
which they are to reach by their own efforts. For 
example, let a class in the first reader be asked to 
make a list of all the words in the last two lessons 
containing th, or oi, or some other combination. 
Activity rather than repose is the nature of chil- 
dren, and even in the kindergarten this activity is 
directed to the attainment of definite ends. With 
number work in the first grade the objects should 
be handled by the children, the letters made, rude 
drawings sketched, so as to give play to their active 
powers as well as to lead them on to confidence in 
doing, to an increase of self-activity. As children 
grow older, the problems set before them, the aims 
held out, should be more difficult. Of course they 



3l6 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

should be of true interest to the child, so that it 
will have an impulse and desire of its own to reach 
them. 

There are few things so valuable as setting up 
definite aims before children and touching up the 
incentives to reach them through their own efforts. 
It has been often supposed that the only way to do 
this is to use reference books, to study up the les- 
sons or some topics of it outside of the regular 
order. But self-activity is by no means limited to 
such outside work. A child's self-activity may be 
often aroused by the manner of studying a simple 
lesson from a text-book. When a reading or geog- 
raphy lesson is so studied that the pupil thoroughly 
sifts the piece, hunts down the thought till he is 
certain of its meaning ; when all the previous knowl- 
edge the pupil can command is brought to bear 
upon this, to throw light uj^on it; when the diction- 
ary and any other books familiar to the child are 
studied for the sake of reference and explanation, 
self-activity is developed. Whenever the disposition 
can be stimulated to look at a fact or statement 
from more than one standpoint, to criticise it even, 
to see how true it is or if there are exceptions, self- 
activity is cultivated. 

The pursuit of definite aims always calls out the 
will, and their satisfactory attainment strengthens 
one's confidence in his ability to succeed. Every 
step should be toward a clearly seen aim. At least 



THE WILL 317 

this is our ideal in working with children. They 
should not be led on blindly from one point to 
another, but try to reach definite results. 

There is a gradual transition in the course of a 
child's schoohng from training of the will under 
guidance to its independent exercise. Throughout 
the school course there must be much obedience and 
will effort under the guidance of one in authority. 
But there should be a gradual increase of self- 
activity and self-determination. When the pupil 
leaves school he should be prepared to launch out 
and pursue his own aims with success. 

When we come to consider the field of direct moral 
education we find the same psychical laws at work 
in will development which we have already treated. 
The moral will bears the same relation to moral ideas, 
feelings, interest, etc., already described in its relation 
to intellect and feeHng. Insight into moral ideas is 
an indispensable condition to moral action. Interest 
in and enthusiasm for moral ideals are powerful 
stimuli to moral conduct. The growth of moral ideas 
is conditioned by the same laws of induction, apper- 
ception, and interest, while involuntary attention and 
habit stand in the same close relation to the moral 
will. 

Corresponding to their central importance, moral 
ideas may be said to possess unusual energy. The 
interests which they awaken are of the strongest and 
most permanent kind. Moral ideals, as illustrated 



3l8 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

in ordinary life, also in history and literature, are 
capable of acquiring complete ascendency over all 
other forms of psychical experience. It is the busi- 
ness of systematic instruction to bring these moral 
ideas to the attention of children, so that they can 
be gradually appropriated and applied to conduct. 
Looked at from the standpoint of self-realization, 
moral ideals furnish the child with the strongest 
motives for effort. 

In one doctrine all thinkers seem to agree, namely, 
that true freedom consists in obedience to the moral 
law. To secure this there must be first a clear intel- 
lectual grasp of the moral ideas and the moral law ; 
second, these ethical concepts and ideals must acquire 
impulsive energy, so as to act as strong motives. 
Sully says, ''Thus it is feehng that ultimately sup- 
plies the stimulus or force to volition, and intellect 
which guides and illumines it." Practice in the 
exercise of the moral virtues in conduct leads on to 
the establishment of habit. Habit in time becomes 
almost automatic, so that the will is not under con- 
stant strain and stress to maintain ethical standards. 
The will in the end, while it controls all life and action, 
is itself under the guidance of those great trends of 
habit in thought and action, of feeling and higher 
impulse, which it is the highest purpose of education 
to cultivate and establish. 

It is the freedom of the will to choose the best that 
we are after. We desire, so far as education can 



THE WILL 319 

accomplish it, to limit the choice of the will to 
good things. We desire that the character in its 
full evolution toward self-realization shall become so 
strong, so noble and consistent in its desire that it 
will not be strongly tempted by evil. 

Teachers who are interested in this phase of peda- 
gogy will do well to study the science of ethics. Not 
that it will much aid them directly in school work, 
but it will at least give them a more comprehensive 
and definite notion of the field of morals, and perhaps 
indicate more clearly where the materials of moral 
education are to be sought and the leading ideas to 
be emphasized. 

Herbart projected a system of ethics, based on 
psychology, with the intention of classifying the 
chief moral notions and of showing their relation to 
each other. He also developed a theory of the 
origin of moral ideas and their best means of 
cultivation, and then based his system of pedagogy 
upon it. 

The chief classes of ethical ideas of Herbart are 
briefly explained as follows : — 

1. Good-will. It is manifested in the sympathy 
we feel for the sorrow or joy of another person. It 
is illustrated by the examples of Sidney and Howard 
already cited. 

2. Legal right. It serves to avoid strife by some 
agreement or estabhshed rule ; e.g. the government 
of the United States fixes the law for preempting 



320 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

land and for homestead claims, so that no two 
persons can claim successfully the same piece of 
land. 

3. Justice, as expressed by reward or punishment. 
When a person purposely does an injury to another, 
all men unite in the judgment, '* He must be pun- 
ished." Likewise, if a kind act is done to any one, we 
insist upon a return of gratitude at least. 

4. Perfection of will. This implies that the will is 
strong enough to resist all opposition. David's will 
to go out and meet Goliath was perfect. A boy 
desires to get his lesson, but indolence and the love 
of play are too strong for his will. There is nothing 
which goes so far to make up the character of the 
hero as strength of will which yields to no difficulties. 

5. Inner freedom. This is the obedience of the 
will to its highest moral incentive. It is ability to set 
the will free from all selfish or wrong desires and to 
yield implicit obedience to moral ideas. This of 
course depends upon the cultivation of the other 
ideas and their proper subordination, one to another. 

The five moral ideas just given indicate the lines 
along which the strength of moral character is shown. 
They are of interest to the teacher as a systematic 
arrangement of morals, and suggestive in teaching. 
They are the most abstract and general classes of 
moral ideas and are of no interest whatever to 
children. 

In morals, the only thing that interests children 



THE WILL 321 

is moral action. Whether it be in actual life or in 
a story or history, the child is aroused by a deed of 
kindness or courage. But all talk of kindness or 
goodness in general, disconnected from particular 
persons and actions, is dry and uninteresting. This 
gives us the key to the child's mind in morals. Not 
moralizing, not preaching, not lecturing, not reproof, 
can ever be the original source of moral ideas with 
the young, but the actions of people they see, and 
of those about whom they read or hear. Moral judg- 
ments and feelings spring up originally only in con- 
nection with human action in the concrete. If we 
propose, then, to adapt moral teaching to youthful 
minds, we must make use of concrete materials, 
observations of people taken from what the children 
have seen, stories, and biographies of historical char- 
acters. A story of a man's life is interesting because 
it brings out his particular motives and actions. 
This is the field in which instruction has its conquests 
to make over youthful minds. 

We will gather up the fruits of our discussion in 
the preceding chapters. Having fixed the chief 
aim in the effort to influence and strengthen moral 
character, we find concentration upon moral ideas 
and practice to be the central principle in which all 
others unite. It is the focussing of life and school 
experiences in the unity of the personality. The 
worth and choice of studies is determined by this. 
Interest unites knowledge, feeling, and will. Apper- 



322 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

ception assimilates new ideas by bringing each into 
the bond of its kindred and friends, spinning threads 
of connection in every direction. The inductive 
process collects, classifies, and organizes knowledge, 
everywhere tending toward unity. 



CHAPTER VIII 

HERBART AND HIS DISCIPLES 

** Then, only, can a person be said to draw educa- 
tion under his control, when he has the wisdom to 
bring forth in the youthful soul a great circle or body 
of ideas, well knit together in its inmost parts — a 
body of ideas which is able to outweigh what is un- 
favorable in environment and to absorb and combine 
with itself the favorable elements of the same." — 
Herb ART. 

Herbart was an empirical psychologist, and be- 
lieved that the mind grows with what it feeds upon ; 
that is, that it develops its powers slowly by experi- 
ence. We are dependent not only upon our habits, 
upon the estabHshed trends of mental action pro- 
duced by exercise and discipline, but also upon our 
acquired ideas, upon the thought materials stored up 
and organized in the mind. These thought materials 
seem to possess a kind of vitality, an energy, an 
attractive or repulsive power. When ideas once gain 
real significance in the mind, they become active 
agents. They are not the blocks with which the 
mind builds. They are a part of the mind itself. 

323 



324 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

They are the conscious reaction of the mind upon 
external things. The conscious ego itself is a prod- 
uct of experience. In thus referring all mental action 
and growth to experience, in the narrow Hmits he 
draws for the original powers of the mind, Herbart 
stands opposed to the older psychologists. He has 
been called the father of empirical psychology. 

Kant, with many other psychologists, gives greater 
prominence to the original powers of the mind, to the 
innate ideas, by means of which it receives and works 
over the crude materials furnished by the senses. 
The difference between Kant and Herbart in inter- 
preting the process of apperception is an index of a 
radical difference in their pedagogical standpoints. 
With Kant, apperception is the assimilation of the 
raw materials of knowledge through the fundamental 
categories of thought (quality, quantity, relation, mo- 
dality, etc.). Kant's categories of thought are original 
properties of the mind ; they receive the crude mate- 
rials of sense-perception and give them form and 
meaning. With Herbart, the ideas gained through 
experience are the apperceiving power in interpret- 
ing new things. Practically, the difference between 
Kant and Herbart is important. For Kant gives 
controlling influence to innate ideas in the process 
of acquisition. Our capacity for learning depends 
not so much upon the results of experience and 
thought stored in the mind, as upon original powers, 
aided and supported by experience. With Herbart, 



HERBART AND HIS DISCIPLES 325 

on the contrary, great stress is laid upon the acquired 
fund of empirical knowledge as a means of increasing 
one's stores, of more rapidly receiving and assimilat- 
ing new ideas. 

Upon this is also based psychologically the whole 
educational plan of Herbart and of his disciples. 
As fast as ideas are gained they are used as means 
of further acquisition. The chief care is to supply 
the mind of a child at any stage of his growth with 
materials of knowledge suited to his interests and 
previous stores, and to see that the new is properly 
assimilated by the old and organized with it. This 
accumulated fund of ideas, as it goes on collecting 
and arranging itself in the mind, is not only a favor- 
able condition but an active agency in our future ac- 
quisition and progress. Moreover, it is the business 
of the teacher to guide and, to some extent, to control 
the inflow of new ideas and experiences into the mind 
of a child ; to superintend the process of acquiring 
and of building up those bodies of thought and feel- 
ing which eventually are to influence and guide the 
child's voluntary action. 

The critics, therefore, accuse Herbart of a sort of 
architectural design or even of mechanical process in 
education. If our ability and character depend to 
such an extent upon our acquirements, and if the 
teacher is able to control the supply of ideas to a 
child and to guide the process of arrangement, he 
can build up controlling centres of thought which 



326 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

may strongly influence the action of the will. In 
other words, he can construct a character by build- 
ing the right materials into it. This seems to leave 
small room for spontaneous development toward self- 
activity and freedom. 

Herbart, on the other hand, criticises Kant's idea 
of the transcendental freedom of the will, on the 
ground that, if true, it makes deliberate, systematic 
education impossible. If the will remains absolutely 
free in spite of acquired knowledge, in spite of 
strongly developed tendencies of thought and feel- 
ing ; if the child or youth, at any moment, even in 
later years, is able to retire into his transcendental 
ego and arrive at decisions without regard to the 
effect of previously acquired ideas and habits, any 
well-planned, intentional effort at education is empty 
and without effect. 

John Friedrich Herbart, the founder of this move- 
ment in education, was born at Oldenburg, in 1776, 
and died at Gottingen, in 1841. He labored seven 
years at Gottingen at the beginning of his career 
as professor, and a similar period at its close. But 
the longest period of his university teaching was at 
Konigsberg, where, for twenty-five years, he occupied 
the chair of philosophy made famous before him 
by Kant. His writings and lectures were devoted 
chiefly to philosophy, psychology, and pedagogy. 
Previous to beginning his career as professor at the 
university, he had spent three years as private tutor 



HERB ART AND HIS DISCIPLES 327 

to three boys in a Swiss family of patrician rank. 
In the letters and reports made to the father of these 
boys, we have strong proof of the practical wisdom 
and earnestness with which he met his duties as a 
teacher. The deep pedagogical interest thus devel- 
oped in him remained throughout his life a quicken- 
ing influence. One of his earliest courses of lectures 
at the university resulted in the publication, in 1806, 
of his ** Allgemeine Padagogik," his leading work on 
education, and to-day one of the classics of German 
educational literature. His vigorous philosophical 
thinking in psychology and ethics gave him the firm 
basis for his pedagogical system. At Konigsberg, so 
strong was his interest in educational problems that 
he established a training-school for boys, where 
teachers, chosen by him and under his direction, 
could make practical application of his decided views 
on education. Though small, this school continued 
to furnish proof of the correctness of his educational 
ideas till he left Konigsberg, in 1833. This, we be- 
lieve, was the first practice-school of its kind estab- 
lished in connection with pedagogical lectures in any 
German university. It should be remembered that, 
while Herbart was a philosopher of the first rank, 
even among the eminent thinkers of Germany and of 
the world, he attested his profound interest in edu- 
cation, not only by systematic lectures and extensive 
writings on education, but by maintaining for nearly 
a quarter of a century a practice-school at the uni- 



328 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

versity, for the purpose of testing and illustrating his 
educational convictions. Lectures on pedagogy are 
more or less commonplace, and often nearly worth- 
less. The lecturer on pedagogy who shuns the life 
of the schoolroom is not half a man in his profession. 
The example thus set by Herbart of bringing the 
maturest fruit of philosophical study into the school- 
room, and testing it day by day and month by month 
upon children, has been followed by several eminent 
disciples of Herbart at important universities. 

Karl Volkmar Stoy (i 8 15-1885) in 1843 began his 
career of more than forty years as professor of peda- 
gogy and leader of a teacher's seminary and practice- 
school at Jena. (A part of this time was spent at 
Heidelberg.) During these years more than six 
hundred university students received a spirited intro- 
duction to the theory and practice of education under 
Stoy's guidance and inspiration. His seminary for 
discussion and his practice-school became famous 
throughout Germany, and sent out many men who 
gained eminence in educational labors. 

Tuiskon Ziller, in 1862, set up at Leipsic, in con- 
nection with his lectures on teaching, a pedagogical 
seminary and practice-school, which, for twenty 
years, continued to develop and extend the applica- 
tion of Herbart's ideas. Ziller and several of his 
disciples have attained much prominence as educa- 
tional writers and leaders. 

A year after the death of Stoy, 1886, Dr. Wilhelm 



HERBART AND HIS DISCIPLES 329 

Rein was called to the chair of pedagogy at Jena. 
He had studied both with Stoy and Ziller, and had 
added to this extensive experience as a teacher and 
as principal of a normal school. His lectures on 
pedagogy, both theoretical and practical, in connec- 
tion with his seminary for discussion and his practice- 
school for application of theory, furnish an admirable 
introduction to the most progressive educational 
ideas of Germany. 

The Herbart school stands for certain progressive 
ideas which, while not exactly new, have, however, 
received such a new infusion of life-giving blood that 
the vague formulae of theorists have been changed 
into the definite, mandatory requirements and sug- 
gestions of real teachers. The fact that a peda- 
gogical truth has been vaguely or even clearly stated 
a dozen times by prominent writers, is no reason for 
supposing that it has ever had any vital influence 
upon educators. The history of education shows 
conclusively that important educational ideas can be 
written about and talked about for centuries without 
finding their way to any great extent into the school- 
rooms. What we now need in education is definite 
and well-grounded theories and plans, backed up by 
honest and practical execution. 

The Herbartians have patiently submitted them- 
selves to thoroughgoing tests in both theory and 
practice. After years of experiment and discussion, 
they have come forward with certain propositions of 



330 THE ELEMENTS OF GENERAL METHOD 

reform which are designed to infuse new life and 
meaning into educational labors. 

The first proposition is to make the foundation 
of education immovable by resting it upon growth 
in moral character, as the purpose which serious 
teachers must put first. The selection of studies and 
the organization of the school course follow this 
guiding principle. 

The second is permanent, many-sided interest. 
The life-giving power which springs from the awak- 
ening of the best interests in the two great realms 
of real knowledge should be felt by every teacher. 
Though not entirely new, this idea is better than 
new, because its deeper meaning is clearly brought 
out, and it is rationally provided for by the selection 
of interesting materials and by marking out an ap- 
propriate method of treatment. All knowledge must 
be infused with feelings of interest, if it is to reach 
the heart and work its influence upon character by 
giving impulse to the will. 

Thirdly, the idea of organized unity, or concentra- 
tion, in the mental stores gathered by children, in all 
their knowledge and experience, is a thought of such 
vital meaning in the effort to establish unity of char- 
acter, that, when a teacher once realizes its import, 
his effort is toned up to great undertakings. 

Fourthly, the culture epochs give a suggestive 
bird's-eye view of the historical meaning of educa- 
tion, and of the rich materials of history and litera- J 



HERBART AND HIS DISCIPLES 331 

ture for supplying suitable mental food to children. 
They help to realize the ideas of interest, concentra- 
tion, and apperception. See Appendix. 

Apperception is the practical key to the most 
important problems of education, because it compels 
us to keep a sympathetic eye upon the child in his 
moods, mental states, and changing phases of 
growth ; to build hourly upon the only foundation 
he has, his previous acquirements and habits. 

Finally, the Herbartians have grappled seriously 
with that great and comprehensive problem, the 
common school course. The obligation rests upon 
them to select the materials and to lay out a course 
of study which embodies all their leading principles 
in a form suited to children and to our school condi- 
tions. 



3kn 



J- 



